Metro Orlando’s road-building agency may say goodbye to one longtime contractor, but it intends to hold on to another.
The Central Florida Expressway Authority has decided to put its general engineering contract out for bid. It has been held for three decades by Atkins Engineering and the company it purchased several years ago, Post, Buckley, Schuh and Jernigan.
The agency paid Atkins $9 million last year and a total of $97 million to it and its predecessor since 2003.
“It’s something we talked about doing from Day 1,” said authority chairman Welton Cadwell. “It’s good business practice to do what we’re doing.”
Cadwell was referring to the fact that the authority was reconfigured by the state Legislature last summer to become a regional agency rather than one that operated only in Orange County, as had been the case for more than 50 years.
Atkins, Cadwell said, is welcome to reapply for the work, which will be split into two contracts, one for engineering and design and one for technology.
Atkins spokeswoman Maureen Nayowith said her company would like to continue working with the authority.
“We are ready to support our client,” she said.
The contract, the most lucrative ongoing commitment offered by the agency, figured prominently in the bribery-related conviction of former board member Scott Batterson during October in Orange County Circuit Court.
He was found guilty of approaching a consultant and saying the general engineering contract might be available if friends of his were hired. Batterson was sentenced to seven and one-half years in prison, but is free on appeal.
Batterson was on the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority, the predecessor the current agency.
Authority officials also are recommending to the agency board to keep AECOM as the company that collects cash tolls on its 109-mile network of toll roads.
A competitor, Faneuil, Inc., bid almost $7 million less, at $62.4 million, for the seven-year contract than AECOM, which purchased the company that has been doing the work since 2005, URS.
Faneuil, which handles the cash booths for Florida’s Turnpike and the Osceola County Expressway Authority, protested the award. Company officials argued among other points that URS misled the agency about its new owner. That appeal was denied by a Maitland hearing officer.
The scoring that backed up the award to AECOM was close, according to records from the four-member authority committee that listened to presentations from both companies on April 22. AECOM got 529 points and Faneuil almost 526.
The authority released a statement saying the award was based 60 percent on technical expertise and 40 percent on cost:
“While price is very important to our business, we must balance that with the service we provide to our customers. The lowest price means nothing if the quality of the service is also low.”
Alden J. Eldredge, Faneuil’s attorney, said in a statement, “Toll payers in Central Florida deserve more. If authority staff doesn’t recognize this valuable savings, then the board should correct the error and find better ways to spend the extra $7 million in savings.”
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