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La Grange Stone Avenue station bids come in too high
Updated: February 19, 2013 1:08PM
LA GRANGE — La Grange Village Board members rejected six bids for the renovation of the Stone Avenue train station on Jan. 14, which came in at 18 to 54 percent higher than the $875,035 estimate of Legat Architects.
Bids ranged from $1 million from IHG Construction Companies LLC to $1.3 million from Rasch Construction & Engineering.
The village has received $1.1 million in federal and transit funding to revamp the station built around 1890.
Federal regulations require the village to award a contract to the lowest responsible bidder, or cancel the process and reject all bids. Staff members advised the board to scrub the process and start over to analyze bid specifications and revise plans, if necessary to stay within the project budget.
Regulations also prohibit village representatives from talking with bidders to ascertain cost disparities, unless a contact is awarded or all bids are rejected, said Andrianna Peterson, assistant village manager.
Once the board votes to reject the bids, contractors can be notified and then interviewed about components of their pricing structure. Preparing a new set of bid specifications won’t result in additional fees from the architect, Peterson said.
The assistant village manager estimated it will take another 30 days to gather feedback and revise bid specification and then an additional 30 days to advertise for bids.
Officials from Metra, which oversees operations of the train station, have indicated they agree with rejecting all bids. But they also must approve the revised specifications and contract award before construction can begin.
