Roads project bid again goes to WGI

BOISE – After an intense, eight-hour meeting packed with people from two competing firms, the Idaho Transportation Board on Friday again picked Boise-based Washington Group International as its top choice to oversee the state’s biggest-ever highway project, “Connecting Idaho.”

“We’re just thrilled with the outcome,” said Stephen Hanks, president and CEO of WGI. “We really want to deliver for the people of the state.”

New York-based Parsons Brinckerhoff, the unsuccessful bidder, and federal authorities had challenged the board’s initial award of the contract to the politically active WGI for improper political favoritism to a local company. Federal regulations don’t allow favoring local firms.

But on Friday, Parsons Brinckerhoff officials said they were satisfied with their second interviews by the board and the new selection process, in which they fell short by 48 points out of a possible 750.

“This process was open and fair – I have no complaints at all,” said Jim van Loben Sels, senior vice president for Parsons Brinckerhoff. “We’re disappointed in the outcome, but you win some, some you don’t.”

Dave Butzier, program manager for WGI, told the Transportation Board, “I’d like to ask you to select us as your program manager not because we live here, but because of our world-class program management experience and our experience all over the world.”

Idaho’s huge, 10-year highway project will include major upgrades to routes in every part of the state, including major work on U.S. Highway 95. The project, pushed through the Legislature by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne last year, envisions doing 30 years’ worth of highway work in the next 10 years, by borrowing against future federal highway allocations.

Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicles, or GARVEE bonds, were created by Congress to allow states to do just that.

Parsons Brinckerhoff, in its presentation, noted that it’s overseeing most of the statewide GARVEE projects in the country.

“The people that will be deployed here have done this kind of work for (state transportation departments) across the country, and I don’t think our competition can say that,” van Loben Sels told the board.

Jim Ross, the recently retired chief engineer for ITD, headed the Parsons Brinckerhoff group seeking the project. “I’ve lived here in Idaho all my life,” he told the board. “I have traveled every mile of the state highway system.”

WGI officials, along with their partner CH2M Hill, a Colorado-based engineering firm, said they’ve managed many large projects and programs. “We can do this – we’ve done it around the world,” Hanks told the board. “You have my attention – my office is 15 minutes away.”

Board members said they thought both firms were highly qualified. “I was impressed with both of ‘em, but I was more impressed by the fact that they (Parsons Brinckerhoff) had more experience within the GARVEE program, which is what we’re looking for,” said board member Bruce Sweeney of Lewiston.

But other board members disagreed. They noted that WGI and CH2M Hill proposed a detailed plan to “hyperstart” or speed up the construction process on the 13 projects in the program and that they’ve already worked on some of the projects. “They’ll have some ability to jump-start this quicker,” said board Chairman Chuck Winder. “From my perspective … they have a shorter learning curve.”

Board member Gary Blick said, “I just thought that the Washington Group’s excitement for getting on with the project was kind of invigorating – I think they’d start digging the ditch today if somebody gave ‘em a shovel.”

Board members each rated the two firms on a series of four criteria that are approved as part of a federal qualifications-based selection process. However, the board announced only the total scores, rather than revealing how each board member scored the two. The Spokesman-Review and the Associated Press were not granted public records requests for the individual tallies. Deputy Attorney General Karl Vogt said federal and state procurement rules generally keep tallies confidential until a contract is negotiated and signed – although in this case, those tallies were made by a public board at a public meeting.

“It will be released eventually,” Winder said after the meeting, adding that Vogt “just wants to do his homework. … My feeling is we ought to be as open as we possibly can, and that’s been my direction to them.”

Winder said Friday’s selection was “kind of like making sausage in a public restaurant, and it was kind of an ugly process, but I did have people from both Parsons Brinckerhoff and Washington Group come up afterward and say thank you for the process and the openness.”

The board scheduled a formal vote to begin contract negotiations with WGI and CH2M Hill for its Jan. 18 meeting.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Skip Brandt, R-Kooskia, who voted against the GARVEE project, said, “I think the board is doing the right thing, having a new hearing to look the issue over. I think they’ll probably still be criticized now, no matter what they do.”

Brandt said he opposed the project because “there was too much politics involved and it was too big – and this is a perfect example.”

WGI, formerly Morrison-Knudsen, is a large construction firm based in Boise that was part of a business coalition lobbying for the GARVEE legislation last year. The firm donated more than $18,000 to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s re-election campaigns, including $3,750 last April, according to state campaign finance records. It also has donated more than $10,000 to the Idaho Republican Party.