BOSTON — The MBTA’s board of directors yesterday put off awarding a contract to build the Greenbush commuter rail line, saying they want more information about the firms that submitted the lowest bid, including alleged troubles with law enforcement and labor unions, the Boston Globe reports.
The joint venture, made up of local contractor Jay Cashman Inc. and Balfour Beatty Construction Inc. of Atlanta, was selected last week by a T committee over three competitors because it submitted a $252 million bid – at least $7.5 million lower than the others – as well as the best technical proposal.
But the joint venture – assembled to build the 17.2-mile rail line from Boston to Scituate – has raised a number of questions with the T’s board members, who yesterday decided not to award the contract, but instead to enter into negotiations with the firms.
The board also requested that company representatives testify at a hearing in February.
The decision, which was unusual because negotiations normally follow the awarding of a contract, occurred after a lawyer hired by the board, Jeffrey B. Mullan of Foley Hoag & Elliot, told the panel about massive cost overruns on an Amtrak contract, tunnel collapses in Britain, bribery allegations in Asia and Africa, and a deadly train wreck in England, all involving Balfour Beatty or its corporate parent.
Mullan said many of the incidents had only involved the firm tangentially, that the company had only been accused, and not convicted, and that allegations of faulty workmanship regarded “different skill sets” not included in the Greenbush project. He said none of the troubles should disqualify Cashman/Balfour Beatty.
State Transportation Secretary Kevin Sullivan, who also chairs the nine-member T board, agreed: “We’re not putting people on trial today … I do want to honor the selection committee’s hard work.”
But powerful board member Janice Loux said she will almost certainly vote against the joint venture’s approval. Loux, who is also head of the Hotel Workers Union, accused the president of Jay Cashman Inc. of being a ”liar,” contending that Cashman is not making good on a pledge to use only union labor on the project. She also said Balfour’s record was deplorable and should disqualify it from contention.
“There are several unions in the building trades that Jay Cashman is not working with,” Loux said, referring to the company’s president. “He has taken his first pass at this board by deceiving us.”
“It seems to me it would be penny wise and pound foolish to even consider Balfour Beatty,” Loux added.
Cashman, interviewed later, said Loux’s comments were “absurd” and “disturbing,” insisted that he always has and always will employ “100 percent union labor,” and vigorously defended both his firm and Balfour, which he said is “one of the finest companies of its kind anywhere.”
While he said he understood the board’s reasons for delaying the awarding of the contract, saying ”this is the public’s dollars, and there’s no such thing as too much oversight,” Cashman accused his competitors of conducting a covert smear campaign with little regard for the truth.
The other bidders on the Greenbush project were the joint venture of J.F. White/Kiewit, at $259.4 million; Coastal Rail Constructors, at $317.2 million; and Modern Continental, at $336.8 million.
“There’s a malicious whisper campaign working against us right now, but we’re a group of very sincere, intelligent, honest, hard-working people,” Cashman said. “I was the low bidder. I was rated number one technically. I should get the job, but my competitors are bitter. That’s at the heart of all of this.”
Cashman said each firm dedicated about six months, eight to 10 engineers, and “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to put their bid proposals together.