The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-05-22
WILL NOT BID
As Low AGAIN
Contractors Say County VIII Lose
BY ReadVBrtising on Sewers
KENDRICK EXPLAINS THE CASE
Engineer Still Maintains That Sewers
Can Be Built at About $4,000
Because the Estimates
Are Liberal.
KENDRICK EXPLAINS The CASE

Quitting the trunk sewer SySleHl Cldiih
that there was no collision as to bids,
that their bids are low and that If the
matter is readvertl..s and pew lids ask
ed for that it will cost the county $780,
900 moro.
The jefferson County Sanitary Com
mission has not yet sold any of the $780,
coo of bonds for which bids were asked
and opened on Tuesday nor has the con-
struction committee to whom the ques-
ton of Investigating the reasonableness
of bids for building the sewers held
meeting.
City Engineer Julian Kendrick still
thinks that the sewers can be built at
his original estimates. In discussing the
matter yesterday Mr.. Kendrick explain
ed that even under the present lowest
bid for the entire work which amounts
to 1886 Sill, that the work can be done for
about 1920
Amount of Rock.
I'm making up the estimates for each
section of the work." said Mr.. Kendrick,
I'VE have 70 estimate the amount Of rock
to be excavated, the amount of dirt to be
excavated, the amount of concrete to be
used and about a dozen different items.
We always make liberal estimate of
the quantity of each class of work to be
done so as to get the advantage of
lower bid. For instance If there was only
10 yards of brickmasonry to be done in
A. aI.rI,4 hi
a yard, while here Is an actual bid of Sc
a yard on 100 yards estimate. If as a
matter of fact there Is only 10 yards need
ed in this section 1t would be paid for
at the estimated cost Of the 100 yards of
Sc yard making a total cost of $50. If
the estimate had been 10 yards originally
at bid of 500 yard this would have
say that bid of 800 a yard would have
been made for AN estimate of 10 yards
but only use this as an illustration.
1.-THE same thing is true as TO every
item of cost that goes towards the
sewers. have made liberal estimate of
rock to be excavated and I am satisfied
that under the present bid the entire
work could be done for about s300O0
while have been told, by some contract
ors that the cost ought to be consider
ably less than my estimate
Into Thirteen Sections.
1.-THE entire length of the sewers has
been divided into thirteen sections each
of these sections is supposed to cost
about the same. If ip one section there is
or1p of
rock to be excavated and a bid Is made
on this basis, the county would only pay
at this price if 1t happened that but 500
square yards were execavated."
Everything is high now" continued
Mr. Kendrick, land that is, the reason
the bids are in excess of what they
should be. There is also plenty of work
going on all over the country and this
accounts for the scarcity of bidders. The
contract too is a large one for small con-
tractors. Five years ago there would
probably have been fifty bids for the
work"
Mr.. G. B. Burkhalter of the firm of C.
M. Burkhalter & Co., one of the local
firms which made bid on the work, ex-
pldlltu WHY they iieu hOs piN oooiHSh
each other. He said:
IN the first place this is the biggest
job of work ever let in the county. The
whole work was too much for any one
of us, and the local contractors includ-
ing the Donaldson Construction Com
pany. the Pennington Construction Com
pany and C. NJ. Burkhalter & Co.. organ
i1a6 tO hid the entire
work in open competition against the
world.
"Our firm bid on sections l, 2, 3, and 5.
The Donaldson Construction Company
bid on sections g. 7, 8, 8 and TO- and the
Pennington Construction Company ON
sections II, r. 10, IA and Is. These are
all home people, and we put up our s15,0
and bid aginst firms like Mason. Hogue
& Co. of Chicago. who are probably
worth three millions and who are repre-
scented by Dunn & Lallande Bros.
Says Bid is Too Low.
There is only one thing about our bid,
and that is that 1t is about 10 per cent
too low. l am willing to leave it to any
disintcrest ed body of contractors or busi-
ness men to say whether it is or not. II
the commission rejects our bid and re-
advertises it will cost them about $4,000
more as none of US will bid as cheap
next time. We have seen the hands of
our opponents.
1T will be noticed that our firms under
bid every other competitor on each and
every section. These foreign contractors
did not any of them bid on the work as
a whole. They simply nibbled at It, or
did what in construction language Is
called 'piking.' The bid of Dunn & Lalland
Brothers on sections 1. 2 and was high
er than mine. There were no other bids
besides ours on sections 4, and 6. The
bid of Lightning & Butler. Nashville
firm on sections Z. s and 0 was higher
than ours. as was the bid of the Southern
Paving end Construction Company of
on sections 10, II, II and 15"
Mr. e. J. Dunn of Dunn & Lallande,
who also made a bid for certain portions
of the work. said
1--WE would not be willing to do the
work for any LEGS than our bid II Is an
expensive piece of work, and / think the
bids of the other firms very low. They
simply divided up the work between
themselves and bid on the whole"
Alabama Brewing Co.
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