A construction company that lost a bid to rebuild portions of the Columbus Road bridge in Granville filed a lawsuit against Licking County and asked a judge to issue an injunction to stop work already underway.
Complete General Construction of Columbus says in the lawsuit filed July 31 in Licking County Common Pleas Court that the county improperly awarded the contract for the $4.5 million project to Suburban Maintenance and Construction of North Royalton, Ohio.
In the lawsuit, Complete General asked Judge David Branstool to halt the project. It’s a county project largely funded by federal and state funding overseen by the Ohio Department of Transportation, said David Edelblute, chief county administrator.
As bid, the bridge is scheduled to be closed for six months, and no one in county government or in Granville wants the project delayed, said Edelblute and Granville Village Manager Herb Koehler.
Koehler said the village isn’t involved in the project but its residents are affected in a big way. He and other Granville officials are monitoring the dispute and hoping for the best.
Edelblute said that because ODOT provided the funds to the county, ODOT lawyers asked Branstool to transfer the case to Franklin County, where ODOT is headquartered.
Branstool obliged, and Licking County officials are awaiting word on the disposition of the case in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court. The case has not yet appeared in the Franklin County court online records system, Edelblute said.
The bridge closed to traffic on July 27, and work by Suburban Maintenance began soon after that at the viaduct connecting Cherry Street in Granville with Columbus Road. Work continued on Monday, Aug. 17, even as another round of rain hit Licking County.
Complete General argues in its lawsuit that its bid met all of the requirements set by the county and that the Suburban Maintenance bid did not meet the requirement for 10% “Small Business Enterprise” involvement in the project. Further, Complete General says that county officials met with Suburban Maintenance about its bid without other bidders being present, which it says is a violation of state regulations for the bidding process.
“Despite being bound to look out for the best interest of the Licking County taxpayers, the
(board of county commissioners) failed to exercise sound discretion when it violated (state regulations) and improperly held an in-person, ex-parte evidentiary proceeding with Suburban Maintenance where competing bidders were excluded from attending,” Complete General’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
Edelblute said ODOT has said the process did not violate state regulations.
Alan Miller writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.