Judge Gives Green Light For Wastewater Treatment Plant Construction
Tulare County Superior Court Judge Lloyd Hicks rejected arguments by a spurned second place bidder over construction of an expansion of the Visalia’s wastewater treatment plant in a ruling dated January 2.
The court case had held up construction on the largest public works project in the city’s history in a battle pitting two giant construction firms.
Hicks ruled that the construction firm Balfour Beatty did not provide convincing arguments that the low bid by rival W.M. Lyles, accepted by the city, should be thrown out.
Judge Hicks ruled “Lyles’ bid was $900,000 less that Balfour’s.The City is required by law to award the bid to the lowest responsible,responsive bidder. There is no basis on which to find that Balfour’s appeal was denied arbitrarily and capriciously and only because Lyles was local company” as claimed by attorneys for Balfour.
Balfour had argued that Lyles bid did not specify the manufacturer of certain equipment to be used on the job. But Judge Hicks pointed out that both Balfour and Lyles relied on the same third party subcontractor to supply the same equipment even though one lists the supplier as Crescent,the distributor, and the other, Square D, the manufacturer. Both use a bid from Berg, the supplier. Therefore, Hicks found no advantage to Lyles.
While the city did say there were “irregularities” because of the mix-up they called the issues minor and waived them in accepting the low bid and the judge agreed.
City attorney Alex Peltzer said the city held off moving forward on the project until the court cleared the matter which it has now.
“We are pleased the judge agreed we made the right decision.”
Peltzer says the contract paperwork would now be signed and the complicated multi-phase project would now move forward.
“It could be a month before they get underway” expects Peltzer.
While the contract for the wastewater treatment plant is for $92.3 million, the overall project includes a solar farm,water recycling, water basins and a pipeline that add up to around $150 million.”We bought other equipment not included in the bid” says Peltzer.
It will be three years before the complete project is done.