Five bids submitted for chip and seal of roads

Scott Bechtold issued a disclaimer two hours before five bids to county road paving bids were opened Monday.

The county's bid request contained an error.

The county highway administer said the county's original request stated half the number of tons required for the chip seal paving materials.

"It was an oversight on my part," he said afterward.

As a result, most bids fell below a county engineering estimate of $981,781.

The companies bidding on the project and their bids were: Missouri Petroleum Products Co. LLC, St. Louis, $978,220; ASA Asphalt Inc., Advance, $970,031.60; Donelson Construction Co. LLC, Clever, Mo., $811,198; A.E. Simpson Construction Inc., Scott City, $743,923; and Blevins Asphalt Construction Co. Inc., Mount Vernon, Mo.; $736,266.

County commissioners Gerald Jones and Larry Bock voted to have Bechtold review the bids.

Bechtold said commissioners and the Road and Bridge Advisory Board have the option of rejecting all the bids, but did not think that was likely to happen.

Larry Payne, advisory board chairman, said if the county did approve one of the bids, a change order could be included for the cost of the additional 2,010 tons of chip seal aggregate.

Payne also told Bechtold that "if there was anything that would give anyone the opportunity to criticize the bids, I would prefer to reject them, because of our mistake."

But he also said. "I hate like hell for any job to be rebid, and the reason is, everybody got to look at what the other people bid, so the low bidder stands a chance of someone having seen his numbers.

"I would rather do that than infringe on the board's credibility and integrity," he said.

Even if the jobs were rebid, the work could still be done in a timely manner, Payne said.

The county's proposal covers using chip and seal paving -- layers of rock and asphalt that costs less than traditional hot-mix asphalt -- as an experiment. Chip and seal is scheduled for portions of the following county roads, which are currently gravel: 273, 316, 380, 422, 423, 439, 440, and 522. The entire chip and seal project includes nearly 12 miles of roadways.

After getting no bids for the county's first proposal, issued last fall, members of the Road and Bridge Advisory Board said they wanted to get started as early as possible this year. The board planned to meet Monday night to review the bids. That meeting, canceled due to the ice storm, has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 19.

County commissioners also approved two unrelated requests for proposals. One would replace the Juvenile Detention Center's phone system, which does not have voice mail or other standard office features. The other request is to create a new, comprehensive Web site for the county, which would include the ability to broadcast lived and archived video.

The commissioners will discuss Webcasting its meetings during Thursday's meeting, which starts at 9 a.m. The agenda for Thursday's meeting was not available at press time.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127