By Paul Leighton
Staff writer
November 21, 2008 10:00 am BEVERLY — The cost of the high school project will go up $1.1 million after the state attorney general's office disqualified the two lowest bidders on Wednesday. The ruling will force the city to hire the next lowest bidder, CTA Ventures of Boston. Mayor Bill Scanlon said the project will still proceed as planned, but the extra $1.1 million in construction costs will cut down on the amount of "contingency" money available to deal with any unexpected changes. "It shouldn't impact our ability to do the project," Scanlon said. "There will be a smaller amount available for the unforeseen." In his ruling, Assistant Attorney General Brian O'Donnell said low bidder Brait Builders of Marshfield submitted "inaccurate reporting" of its previous work and did not have the qualifications to serve as a general contractor on a project of this size. The second-lowest bidder, a combination of two companies called J&J/SMI, formed a joint venture too late in the bidding process to qualify, O'Donnell said. The city has been planning for three years to build a new four-story high school next to the current high school on Sohier Road and renovate the existing field house, auditorium and cafeteria. The exact cost has yet to be determined but will be around $80 million, Scanlon said. Construction was scheduled to begin last month but now will not start until "around the first of the year," he said. The attorney general's office, which oversees state bidding laws, stepped in when the four bidders for the construction contract all filed protests against each other. O'Donnell upheld the protests against Brait and J&J/SMI. O'Donnell said Brait claimed it had built the $44.7 million Oliver Ames High School but failed to mention that it took over the project only after another company had completed $28 million of the work. The state Division of Capital Management is taking steps to decertify Brait, which would make the company ineligible for state projects. J&J/SMI was disqualified because the city did not "prequalify" the newly formed joint venture until the morning that the bids were opened, well after the deadline, O'Donnell said. "Allowing a contractor to become pre-qualified months after the established deadlines for pre-qualification, and particularly the morning of the bid opening, runs counter to the system under which all prospective bidders competed," O'Donnell wrote. The disqualification of J&J/SMI did not make much difference to the city in terms of the cost of the project because J&J/SMI's bid was only $3,000 lower than CTA Ventures. The exact cost of the project should be determined on Monday, when the Massachusetts School Building Authority board of directors is scheduled to meet. The agency, which oversees high school building projects, has agreed to pay 56.4 percent of Beverly's project, but its board of directors voted in September to cap the project cost at $75 million. Scanlon has said the board made a mistake on that price and will revote a higher figure on Monday. Scanlon had expected the price to be capped at $81.5 million, but said yesterday he now expects less than that but still "over $80 million."
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