Ohio highway agency defends plan to award $1M to unsuccessful bidders on bridge project

Ohio defends payment plan on bridge project

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio’s highway agency on Thursday defended its plan to award up to $1 million apiece to two bidders that submit designs for a major new bridge in Cleveland but don’t win the contract, payments questioned by a government watchdog.

The payments will increase competition and result in high-quality design proposals, said Transportation Director Jolene Molitoris, responding to an April report by Inspector General Thomas Charles that questioned whether the plan was legal, justified and fiscally prudent. The highway agency had 60 days to respond.

It would mark the first time that Ohio has offered such incentives on this type of large-scale project. Other states, including Florida and Minnesota, have made similar payments.

Molitoris said her agency has the authority to make the payments. Charles said state law doesn’t explicitly grant it, though it doesn’t prohibit it, either.

The final payments will equal $1 million or a company’s actual expenses, whichever is less, Molitoris said, and she’ll require the three competing firms to document their actual costs.

Deputy Inspector General Winston Ford said Thursday his office would review the highway agency’s plan to evaluate the bids.

The new $450 million bridge on Interstate 90 is getting $85 million from the federal economic stimulus package, making it one of the most high-profile road projects in Ohio.

Stimulus money will not be used to make the losing-bid payments, transportation officials said.

After an initial screening process, the state selected three design teams to submit final proposals in August, with a contract to be awarded in September. Construction is to begin later this year and finish in 2014.

Transportation officials contend payments to the two unsuccessful bidders are needed because firms will not expend the resources, time and effort to design plans for such a big project unless the state agrees to share the risk and reimburse them for a portion of their costs.

The state will receive the intellectual property rights on the losing bids, which could be incorporated into future projects, Molitoris said. But she conceded that is impossible to quantify.

In his April report, Charles argued that Ohio failed to present any evidence showing that design teams would shy away from competing without a payment or that the losing designs would be particularly useful.

Messages left by The Associated Press at two of the design firms weren’t immediately returned.

After the payments are made, the state anticipates saving $3.2 million on the project by using a design-build method of construction, which bundles the design and construction phases into a single contract. Highway officials say the idea is get the designer and contractor to work as a team, saving money in the long run and completing the project faster.