Revealing failure to disclose “green demolition” option skews Newark bid process.
There is just so much wrong with this picture that we scarcely know where to begin. Of course, the most obvious shortcoming is the fact that low bidder Steve Roberts was planning to undertake the demolition of two buildings for less than the next nearest bid was planning to charge for two.
But that, apparently, is merely the tip of the iceberg. And the two-thirds that lurk just below the surface perhaps says more about the US demolition industry’s attitude to the environment than it does about the failings of the bid process.
A report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development says that the reason for the disparity between the low bid and the other six bids on the shortlist was that the city knew the low-bidder planned to defer some if its cost by recycling brick and foundation stones, therefore minimising disposal costs.
“There was no indication that the city afforded the other bidders the same opportunity,” Jorgelle Lawson, director of the HUD Columbus field office’s Community Planning and Development Department wrote in the letter. “Based on this information, we believe this is a clear violation. … The city failed to provide all bidders with the fact they could use ‘green’ demolition. This failed to allow free and open competition.”
In the city’s 11 February response, it stated that the city did not require the “green demolition,” but the low bidder, Steve Roberts, opted for that form of disposal.
Did not require “green demolition”? In this day and age?
It is difficult to know just who is more at fault here: the city for failing to prescribe environmentally-sound disposal methods; or the demolition contractors for continuing to identify demolition arisings as a waste rather than a potentially valuable resource.
Compare that to the UK and other parts of Europe where it is not unusual for the demolition contractor to “buy” the demolition contract in order to access the valuable materials contained within a structure, and it’s clear that the US still has much to learn about what green demolition really means.
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