RIDOT Awards $625 Million Contract to Sole Bidder - It Was Supposed to Cost $500M
GoLocalProv News Team
RIDOT Awards $625 Million Contract to Sole Bidder - It Was Supposed to Cost $500M
This is the most expensive contract ever awarded by RIDOT.
Skanska and its two partners were the only bidders.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe cost of the project had been estimated by RIDOT to cost $500 million, but the award is for $625 million for what many in the contraction industry say is a smaller scope of work.
More money for less.
The review committee to award the contract was led by RIDOT Director Peter Alviti.
Other companies partnering with Skanska in the project are Aetna Bridge and McCourt.
GoLocal Asked McKee About This Contract in Early July - SEE VIDEO ABOVE
Questions About Another Skanska Project
In 2022, GoLocal unveiled questions about another contract awarded to Skanska.
A Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) project on Route 146 was budgeted by the staff of RIDOT to cost $120 million. The winning bidder, Skanska and JH Lynch, won the bid at $167 million— nearly 40% higher than the state’s estimate.
Skanska is a global construction company founded in Sweden. Today, the U.S. division claims work across the country and is facing a number of lawsuits. JH Lynch is a Cumberland-based construction company.
Presently, RIDOT’s 6/10 project is being investigated by both the United States Attorney and the Rhode Island Attorney General. RIDOT’s contractor Barletta Heavy Division dumped tons of contaminated material next to homes in the Olneyville section of Providence.
For the Route 146 project, the winning bid was tens of millions higher than the two other finalists, according to documents secured by GoLocal.
Final Bids
Skanska/JH Lynch final bid: $167,400,146.00
Barletta/AETNA Bridge Company final bid: $144,668,000.00
Cardi Corporation final bid: $132,999,150.00
GoLocal reported on April 29, 2022:
Ten days after a GoLocal investigation unveiled that the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) awarded a $167 million bid to Skanska and JH Lynch — a bid that was $34 million than the lowest bid and $47 million more than RIDOT staff had estimated — RIDOT Director Peter Alviti took to talk radio and claimed that the information about the bids was "illegally" secured.
On a radio appearance on a WPRO talk radio show hosted by Gene Valicenti on Thursday, Alviti said regarding RIDOT documents being publicly disclosed, "Well, people who either are obtaining information illegally or obtaining information through back channels [but] it's wrong."
But when Alviti’s office was asked to explain what public documents were “obtained illegally” the agency did not respond.
Alviti in his interview on the radio said that the unveiling of the bidding information was due to dissatisfied bidders.
“There's a lot of misinformation and a lot of it's being conjured up I think by maybe people who did not receive favorable consideration on this project,” said Alviti.
The public documents secured by GoLocal unveiled that the final bids showed that RIDOT picked the highest bidder of an out-of-state company.