The Board of Estimates voted Wednesday to defer for one week awarding a contract to perform "urgent" infrastructure repairs as part of Baltimore's massive overhaul of more than 400,000 water meters.
Board members, including Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young and Comptroller Joan M. Pratt, said they wanted more time to consider a competing bid for the work fixing infrastructure problems discovered during the system-wide upgrade to wireless water meters. The deferral came after representatives from R.E Harrington Plumbing — the low bidder for the contract — argued they had been disqualified from winning the work based on a technicality.
Edward Smith Jr., an attorney representing the firm, told board members that city purchasing officials disqualified Harrington because the firm neglected to put a person's initials next to a change using Wite-Out made on their bid submission.
Harrington's bid of $2.7 million is about half a million less than a $3.2 million competing bid from Metra Industries Inc., which purchasing officials recommended to win the work.
City officials say additional contractors are needed to deal with time-consuming construction situations that are arising during the overhaul, thereby freeing up the main contractor, Itron Inc. of Washington state, to install meters. City officials want Itron to finish installing the new meters by 2017.
Once awarded, the latest contract will bring the project's price tag to more than $105 million.
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