The Alberta government will change the way it evaluates contractor bids for highway maintenance contracts, putting more emphasis on company performance and less on cost, Transportation Minister Brian Mason announced Tuesday.
In the past, such bids were evaluated on a 95-5 basis, with 95 per cent emphasis on cost and five per cent on technical components, Mason said.
The new model will focus more on performance and outcomes, with cost given 60 per cent emphasis and performance measures given 40 per cent.
“Updated performance measures will evaluate the bidder’s ability to deliver on maintenance activities such as snowplowing, salting and sanding for snow and ice control, pothole patching, mowing and vegetation control in highway rights-of-way,” the province said Tuesday in a news release.
The announcement came days after five Alberta road maintenance companies asked the courts to determine whether the government broke its own rules and policies when it awarded a $482-million contract to a British Columbia firm.
In court documents, the companies allege the government “breached its obligations under several interprovincial trade agreements, Alberta statues, and its own published procurement policies.”
The filings further allege the process wasn’t “transparent” and the government was “unreasonable” and “unfair” and favoured the B.C. company over the interests of Alberta companies.
At the same announcement, Mason said the province has issued a request for proposals for maintenance contracts on Deerfoot Trail in Calgary. The existing contract will expire on July 31, 2019. Bids will be evaluated according to the updated criteria, he said.
10 more contracts to be tendered
Contracts for 10 other highway maintenance areas across Alberta will be tendered later this year, according to the news release.
New maintenance contracts will have a seven-year lifespan, with a possible three-year extension if performance expectations are met. All highway maintenance contracts are opened to competitive bidding as they expire, the news release said.
Alberta is divided into 25 maintenance areas managed under eight highway maintenance contracts that cover 31,400 kilometres of provincial highways. The network also includes 4,500 bridges, Deerfoot Trail in Calgary and the ring roads around Calgary and Edmonton.