KYTC awarded $11.3 million in single bid contracts in December

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet awarded ten single bid contracts in December totaling $11,362,826. KYTC rejected 18 other attempts by Kentucky’s highway industry to secure single bid awards during the latest bid cycle.

• L-M Asphalt Partners secured a single bid contract worth $2,804,510. Their bid for the Laurel County project exceeded the engineer’s estimate by $147,865. L-M won a $10.4 million single bid contract in November for eleven miles of asphalt repaving in Whitley County. That bid exceeded the cabinet’s internal estimate by $613,633.
• Jim Smith Contracting got back into the single bid game in December with a $620,628 bid in Marshall County. The company secured one of the largest single bid awards of the year with a $63.6 million award in April 2020.
• KYTC rejected ten single bid offers from Hinkle Contracting Co. but also awarded Hinkle with a $497,128 single bid contract in McCreary County. Hinkle secured 4 single bid contracts in November totaling $1.1 million.
• Mountain Enterprises won two single bid contracts exceeding the engineer’s estimate while also having three bids rejected. The two successful awards totaled $945,062. In November, Mountain’s single bid success added up to $1.2 million.
• Nally & Gibson from Georgetown won two single bid contracts totaling $3,593,223. Their successful bids exceeded the engineer’s estimates by $156,343. It defies logic that the Cabinet cannot entice at least one competitor to compete for projects in Scott County.
• Gaddie-Shamrock was the other winner in the single bid game in December. The Adair County contractor won two single bid awards totaling $2,111,356 for projects in Clinton and Russell.

There is no satisfactory explanation for why the cabinet continues to reward Kentucky’s highway industry with single bid awards. It does so while also lobbying the legislature to raise the gas tax on working families during a pandemic.

The General Assembly is interested in increasing investment in Kentucky’s infrastructure. Maximizing the effectiveness of the current resources currently managed by the Cabinet is the place to start. The legislature should begin that effort with a special examination of KYTC’s bidding practices by the State Auditor’s office in 2021.