Local firms can't get Sun Road contract

The Associated Press

The criteria that federal highway officials are using to award the contract for Glacier Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road reconstruction are so narrow they're keeping Montana companies out of the loop, the Montana Contractors Association said.

"It's a real aggravation," said Cary Hegreberg, association executive director. "A missed opportunity for Montana companies and Montana workers."

Montana companies will try to sign on as subcontractors, but an out-of-state company will serve as the primary contractor for the work, said John Bauer of Schellinger Construction, based in Columbia Falls.

The work could take about 10 years and total more than $140 million, creating hundreds of jobs before completion.

"It's unfortunate that the money doesn't stay here, inside the state," Bauer said. "We're still hoping to do portions of it, certainly, as a subcontractor. But to be blunt, that's not where the money's at. The money's in being the prime contractor."

Federal highway officials included several minimum criteria when they crafted the bid package.

To qualify, a company must have completed large jobs - worth at least $7 million - and those jobs must have involved various technical skills, such as rock bolting, decorative rock and micro-piles.

Schellinger Construction has done considerable work in Glacier National Park, and submitted a resume of four jobs for review.

Three of those jobs were valued at more than $7 million but did not include all the technical requirements. The fourth met the technical requirements, but fell short of the money mark, at about $6.5 million.

"The problem is there aren't any contracts of that size and complexity put out in this area," Bauer said. "We proved we could do the job, but the way the criteria were put together, we never had a chance."

Bauer said he wasn't alone.

Other Montana firms interested in the contract included Sandry Construction of Bigfork, JTL Group of Kalispell, and Morgan & Oswood of Great Falls.

Sandry currently is involved in extensive repair work on Glacier Park's alpine highway.

All are companies with considerable experience working on park roads, even Sun Road, but "not one of us could meet all the requirements," Bauer said.

He said he believed Idaho-based HK Contractors would win the massive job; in addition to HK, only one other company, from Colorado, met the criteria, he said.

Hegreberg said the situation is "hugely frustrating" to local firms.

"We've shared our frustration with Sen. [Max] Baucus and the [Montana] delegation," he said.

Baucus vowed when he secured

the first $50 million for the Sun Road work that the money would repair the road and create local jobs.

On Monday, Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said the Sun Road work represents a "unique project because it's so mountainous, it's environmentally sensitive and it's dangerous."

Baucus doesn't know why the Federal Highway Administration used the criteria that it did, but he thinks the rules are "arbitrary and unfair," Kaiser said.

Baucus is angered by the situation, but Senate ethics rules bar him from intervening in the application process, Kaiser said.

A Federal Highway Administration official declined to comment on the contract or any specifics because it hadn't been awarded yet. It is expected to be awarded within the next two weeks.

Baucus cannot override the Highway Administration's decision, but he "is already drafting legislation to ensure local contractors are treated more fairly" in the future, Kaiser said.

Kaiser said he also thinks local contractors will be used on the job as subcontractors, and pointed to recent major repairs of the Beartooth Highway near Yellowstone National Park. An out-of-state contractor won that bid, but JTL and Montana engineering firm HKM did "the lion's share of the work," he said.