The Transfer Station renovation project has received no general contracting bids and will go back out for bidding a second time, Marblehead Health Director Andrew Petty announced at a Board of Health meeting Tuesday.
Bidding for the project went out earlier this year, with all bids due back by Feb. 21. Petty said at a previous board meeting that the bidding would be broken up into five alternate construction pieces, in addition to the “base bid,” which consists of the compactor, scale pit, driving lanes, and foundation of the scale house.
General contractors are responsible for overseeing a project to ensure that construction is done properly, safely, and in a timely fashion. While bids came in for the main project, in addition to all other subproject bids, no general contractors provided an offer.
“The general contractor would take all of these, take the low bid of the companies across the board, and bring them into its general contractor bid,” Petty said. “But nobody was interested in that, we did not receive any general contractor bids.”
Petty added that the project will be put out for rebidding as soon as possible. The department will also make sure that general contractors are “aware of the project,” and talk to them about their concerns regarding the project.
At the end of the meeting, resident Allen Waller called out the board for failing to receive any general contracting bids.
“I think it’s important to point out, to receive zero bids, on a general contract, is remarkable. You, as the board, are responsible for these things,” Waller said.
“You received no bids, so this failure is to you,” Waller added.
Petty said that factors that potentially contributed to the lack of bids include the project being a relatively low-paying job for contractors and Marblehead being a difficult area to get to.
According to Petty, George Wattendorf and his local construction company, GVW Construction, had put in for multiple sub bids, and was also expected to put in a bid for general contracting.
“We were a little surprised when he put in his filed sub bids, and the filed sub bids said his numbers can only be used by him, but then he didn’t do a general contract bid. What happened?” Petty said.
Without a general contractor, construction for the Transfer Station will not begin. An override for a feasibility study on the addition of a construction and demolition drop-off area is expected to be presented at Town Meeting in May.
“Without a bid, we can’t move forward,” Petty said.