Company accepts decision on highway work in Arizona

KINGMAN, Ariz. -- No further challenge will be made over a contract for widening a 15-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 93 leading to the new bridge spanning the Colorado River at Hoover Dam, providing a new traffic link between Arizona and Nevada.

"We've been considering the alternatives," Tamarah Hancock, a lawyer for losing bidder Scarsella Bros. Inc., wrote in an Oct. 23 e-mail. "While Scarsella is disappointed in the (Arizona Transportation) Board's decision, we also respect the Board's careful deliberation and we do not intend to protest the result."

Scarsella, the apparent low bidder, filed a formal protest when it learned that staff had recommended the board award a $71.3 million contract to FNF Construction.

Scarsella submitted a $69.8 million bid but was passed over because of errors in its proposal. Scarsella conceded the mistakes but argued that Arizona authorities had discretion under the law to allow corrections and award it the contract to save taxpayers $1.4 million.

The Transportation Board formally awarded the contract to FNF at its Oct. 17 meeting in Wickenburg.

FNF will widen U.S. 93 to four lanes from the start of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, north to the point where crews previously completed construction of the approach leading to the new bridge.

The estimated completion date is late 2010.