New Haven Independent

James Boice (pictured above), acting commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, made the above revelation during a hearing before the state legislature’s Finance and Transportation Committees Tuesday. He was already in the hot seat for skyrocketing costs on a New Haven railyard project (click here for a story on that.)

Concerned that the DOT’s poor cost estimate practices might jeopardize other projects, legislators pressed Boice on how other state projects were going.

The DOT is currently reviewing bids for the next phase of construction on the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, aka the Q Bridge, over which I-95 crosses the New Haven Harbor. The state plans to free up traffic gridlock there by replacing the Q Bridge with a 10-lane, cable-suspended spectacle.

Boice Tuesday revealed a multi-million-dollar blip in the agency’s effort to rebuild the structure. Bids had gone out for Contract B-1 of the project to build the Northbound I-95 entrance to the bridge and main span bridge foundations. The lowest bidder dropped off the project and the state will have to go with the next-highest bidder, at an extra price of $27 million, Boice told the none-too-thrilled committee.

DOT Spokesman Judd Everhart later filled in the details: The Walsh Construction Company had bid $110.5 million for this phase of the project. The state was going to award the bid on April 2. Seeking more information from the contractor, the DOT asked Walsh to extend the bid past the deadline, Everhart said.

“They refused to do that,” said Everhart. The company withdrew its bid on the final day before the bid could be awarded.

That left the state stuck with the next-lowest bidder: Middlesex Construction Corporation and Cianbro Construction, which jointly offered $137.5 million — a 24 percent increase over the lowest bid. The state is currently reviewing all bids, Everhart said.

The flub “will not present any kind of delay to the project,” Everhart maintained. “We expect work to begin this summer.” The bridge should still be done by 2014, he said.

Meanwhile, Gov. M. Jodi Rell fired off a missive to her appointee, Boice, demanding more answers after the bad-news day.

“I would like an explanation of the reasons why the low-bid contractor for the ‘Q’ Bridge project withdrew the bid, as well as information about the fiscal ramifications to the State of Connecticut,” Rell wrote in a letter sent to Boice Tuesday and distributed to the media. She demanded an answer by Friday, April 18.