Competitive road bidding? Hardly

Glacier National Park and its construction contractor have done a yeoman's job in recent weeks repairing storm-damaged sections of Going-to-the-Sun Road.

But the firm doing such good work is a Montana company, and it is one of several Montana companies with Sun Road experience that have effectively been excluded from bidding on comprehensive Sun Road reconstruction work.

The Montana Contractors Association and several of the Montana contractors say the criteria required by the Federal Highway Administration are so narrow that the firms can't qualify for the job. As a result, primary contracting for the work is expected to go to an out-of-state company.

Predictably, the Montana contractors aren't happy about it, and we share their concerns.

"We proved we could do the job, but the way the criteria were put together, we never had a chance," said John Bauer of Schellinger Construction in Columbia Falls.

Qualifying companies must have experience with jobs worth at least $7 million - and those jobs had to involve technical skills such as rock bolting and decorative rock installation.

Schellinger submitted a resume of four jobs, three of them exceeding $7 million. The fourth met the technical requirements but was worth just $6.5 million.

Other companies such as JTL Group of Kalispell, Morgan and Oswood of Great Falls and Bigfork's Sandry Construction all have Sun Road experience, but predicaments similar to Schellinger's.

There's something wrong with this picture.

The Montana contractors have demonstrated competence on Sun Road, a difficult place to work with a tight work season and unusual job requirements.

Simply put, rebuilding a historic highway chiseled into an alpine cliff isn't like rebuilding U.S. 93 in the Flathead Valley.

Sandry Construction has proven remarkably adaptive and capable in carrying out storm-damage repairs on the road over the past year. The company's workers have worked through foul weather and avalanche hazards and recently have been working seven days a week, on two 10-hour shifts daily.

And while the work is considered "emergency repairs," the projects are designed to be permanent fixes that will mesh with the comprehensive road reconstruction that lies ahead. So far, the repairs are on schedule to allow for a complete opening of Sun Road by July 1.

That should count for something in the company's eligibility to compete for the larger contract. The same goes for the work the other Montana contractors have done on Sun Road in the past.

We also have to question the contract criteria's influence on cost-efficiency for Sun Road reconstruction. It appears that only two companies - one from Colorado and the other from Idaho - will meet the experience requirements, and to our knowledge, neither has worked on Sun Road before.

With at least four major Montana contractors out of the hunt, will there truly be competitive bidding for the work?