At a special meeting held last week, the governing board for Southeast Alaska Power Agency reconfirmed its approval of a contract for transmission line maintenance through 2019.
The bid was awarded at the board’s regularly scheduled February 8 meeting. The scope of work includes bucket truck inspections and guy thimble installations.
SEAPA chief executive Trey Acteson explained there were three bidders on the project. Two packets came in comparably, while a third had come in “really high,” he said. The lowest bid was submitted by Electric Power Constructors of Anchorage, at around $1,937,125 when including the line item for truck inspections.
The next highest bid was from Juneau-based Chatham Electric, at $2,146,440. Additional bids put in for the guy thimble installations widened the difference between the two, with EPC’s $202,106 item bid coming in considerably lower than Chatham’s $833,000 offer. Wilson Utility Construction of Canby, Oregon, had submitted a bid for $4,267,322 that did not include this project.
At the previous meeting in February, Wrangell board member Stephen Prysunka had sought to amend the bid to award the contract instead to Chatham. “Possibly because of inaudibility and/or additional discussion that followed, the amended motion was inadvertently withdrawn by Mr. Prysunka,” the board packet notes, as the motion appeared to lack a second. Examination of the meeting’s recording later confirmed there had been a second, by Ketchikan representative Judy Zenge. Regardless, in the voting the contract was awarded to EPC as initially proposed.
To clarify the board’s final decision, on March 8 a special meeting was called to revisit the award. SEAPA staff recommended proceeding with EPC as first contracted.
Ralph Kibby of Chatham Electric phoned in to appeal the decision.
“The low bid is not always necessarily the best bid, and this is particularly true in this situation,” he explained, noting logistical costs involved in maintaining the lines.
“As I went through the (appeals) process I was not able to get the documentation of the other bids for me to look at and see if they were reasonable and responsible,” Kibby went on to say. “It’s pretty hard to protest something if you don’t have these things in front of you.”
He advised the board to consider greater transparency with its bid numbers in future projects, though he can also see disadvantages to individual contractors in that approach. SEAPA is under no obligation to provide that information for such projects.
After considering his comments, the board still decided to proceed with the project as originally awarded.
The board also awarded additional funding to a bid for the debris boom assembly and installation at the Swan Lake hydroelectric dam. A raising of the dam was completed late last fall, increasing total capacity by a quarter. Finishing the project, a new debris boom will be added to support the structure.
Two bids were received by February 24, with Marble Island LLC in Ketchikan the low bid at $227,000. BAM LLC, also of Ketchikan, submitted a packet for $248,000.
In his staff report, SEAPA power system specialist Ed Schofield recommended going with Marble Island as the low bidder. However, he recommended that the board allow for an additional $150,000 over the $102,000 in unencumbered funds available for the project.
An original $284,000 was authorized last September. Independent reviews of the project design found the original anchors for the boom would have to be more robust, and the extra funding would cover that adjustment and the related contingency. The board awarded the bid to Marble Island as proposed, with the additional funding and contingency bringing the contract to a not-to-exceed value of $252,000.
In one final item, SEAPA approved the leasing of additional office space at the Ketchikan Borough Office Building. It currently makes use of two suites on the third floor, and an additional office nearby would provide more room for storage.
“We’re getting bundled up in here,” said Acteson.
The monthly rent for the 338 square foot office would come to $561.08 a month next year, the same as that for its Suite 318. The board approved the measure in a unanimous vote.
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