A 120 percent difference between high and low bid is now considered the norm?
Here at DemolitionNews, we prefer to merely present you with the news and leave our personal feelings strictly for our comment articles. But, in this instance (which highlights just how far the US demolition industry has fallen during the recession), we’re going to make an exception. Our comments are in italics:
Bids opened on Wednesday for the Chalmers Mill demolition held no surprises, said officials involved with the long-anticipated Amsterdam project.
No surprises? That’s a good thing then. All is going according to plan.
The project has garnered so much interest from contractors that an additional walk-through was held and the deadline for bids pushed back two weeks.
Lots of interest? Work is scarce so no alarm bells.
A dozen vendors submitted proposals to the city, ranging from Ritter & Paratore Contracting Inc.’s low bid of $1.6 million to a high bid of $3.5 million from Albany-based Cristo Demolition Inc.
Erm, you do know that’s a 120 percent difference between the low and the high bid, right?
“They were right in the range that we’d anticipated,” said Saratoga Associates President Dan Shearer. “Our construction estimate was $2.347 million and I think that’s about where the mean came in.”
Wait one cotton-picking minute. Even your own estimates put this at $1 million more than the low bid. Doesn’t that worry you at all?
“I actually thought that they’d be in the $2 to $3 million price range,” said Department of Public Works General Foreman Ray Halgas. “With the downturn of the economy … you notice a lot of contractors bidding on a lot of jobs.”
REALLY? Well we can see why they pay you the big bucks Mr Halgas.
When the site was originally planned for demolition it had an estimated price tag around $4 million.
Where’s your economic recovery now, Mr President?
Read more here (if you can bare to).
