The Central Tenders Committee and Cabinet have given approval to McAlpine Ltd. to continue on in the process of preparing a bid on the first of two government office accommodation projects as the sole bidder.
The decision follows the withdrawal of two other pre-qualified bidders, an Arch and Godfrey joint venture with Manhattan Construction and Hadsphaltic International.
Leader of Government Business, the Hon. Kurt Tibbetts, whose ministry is overseeing the estimated $50 million project, said the process will go on.
‘Even though we are down to one team bidding on the project, we are ensuring the process continues as if there were multiple bidders involved,’ he said. ‘The Central Tenders Committee has hired a third party to oversee the process to ensure everything is above board and complies with the regulations we’ve established.’
Cabinet specified that McAlpine must still submit a bona fide bid and the CTC will engage an independent third party to give oversight to the bid process. The bid is due to be returned to the government’s project management team on 25 May 2007.
The Central Tenders Committee had announced on 10 October 2006 that three companies were prequalified to bid on the project. However, by 8 February 2007 the Arch and Godfrey and Manhattan joint venture withdrew from the bidding process, as did Hadsphaltic International on 16 February 2007. Both companies said their reason for withdrawing was their projected workload with other projects.
McAlpine Ltd heads a design/build team with OBM Ltd Architects and Interior Designers; structural engineers are Halcrow Yolles of Toronto together with APEC Engineers; mechanical and electrical engineers are MCW consultants; and the LEED consultant is Provident Energy Management, both companies are out of Toronto, Canada.
Construction on the building is planned to begin in fall 2007 with completion in 2009.
Nearly 700 workers in over 30 government ministries, departments and authorities will be housed in the new building to be built adjacent to the present Government Administration Building in George Town.
A second project has also been planned, but to date, the government has still not announced a site for that building. The government last week reallocated $1.5 million of the approved $4.35 million appropriation for that project, presumably because of the lack of progress in choosing a site.
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