NEWS

Council approves street improvements bids for four companies

Posted 6/30/22

By ALEX MALM 

The City Council  on a 7-2 vote approved Monday bids of four companies to repave roads this season.. 

Director of Public Works Eric Earls told the Council that …

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NEWS

Council approves street improvements bids for four companies

Posted

By ALEX MALM 


The City Council  on a 7-2 vote approved Monday bids of four companies to repave roads this season.. 

Director of Public Works Eric Earls told the Council that originally his recommendation was to approve the contract to J.H. Lynch & Sons. 

Earls said that while Cardi Corporation was the lowest bidder, the bid was challenged by Narragansett Improvement because Cardi had  “penny bids” for some of the scope of the project. While there is no state policy against it, penny bids are discouraged, Earls said. 

At the advice of the city solicitor, Earls said it was decided to eliminate Cardi’s bid. 

Narragansett Improvement ultimately withdrew its bid because they thought there would be an escalation clause which there wasn’t. 

After Narragansett Improvement dropped out, only J.H. Lynch was left because the other companies D’Ambra Construction, T. Miozzi Inc. all had “penny bids” as well. 

So called «penny bids» are low estimates on certain projects within a contract that offset the higher estimates on other projects to make the overall contract competitive. Earls explained that the reason why penny bids are discouraged is because companies sometimes try to talk the city out of projects because they don’t make as much money on that particular part of the job. 

Earls said awarding bids to all of the companies would allow the City to get the best deal for different projects needed to be done. 

Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur said the city has a low bidder of over $100,000 than the next bidder and $800,000 lower than Lynch.

Ladouceur said he thinks that the overall lowest bidder should get the first chance to do the work especially if they are a Warwick company like Cardi. 

Ladouceur said he also doesn’t think it would be cheaper long term to have different companies do different jobs. 

Earls said that the City would hand off the whole street to a particular company. 

Council President Steve McAllister said he is in support of it. 

“I think this is very simple,” said McAllister. 

McAllister said “it›s the number one issue” (condition of Warwick roads) the Council hears each day. He said having more companies to do the work is better. 

council, street improvements

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