Date: July 17, 2012
The Wichita City Council, which sits as the Wichita Airport Authority, on Tuesday voted unanimously to award a new airport terminal contract to Key Construction and Walbridge, a Wichita-based joint-venture firm.
Earlier during Tuesday’s Airport Authority meeting, Authority members voted 5-2 to deny an appeal from a competing contractor, Dondlinger/Hunt, which was protesting its disqualification for work related to the new terminal project.
Tuesday’s actions followed a July 3 vote when City of Wichita Board of Bids voted unanimously to reject the Dondlinger/Hunt appeal, a denial that sent the bid dispute to the City Council/Wichita Airport Authority.
Tuesday’s vote marked the third time in the bid process that the Dondlinger/Hunt appeal had been rejected. In addition, the Wichita Airport Advisory Board (WAAB) voted unanimously to support awarding the terminal contract to Key and Walbridge of Detroit. Key/Walbridge submitted a bid price of $101.5 million.
Dondlinger/Hunt submitted a bid of $99.4 million but it was ruled unacceptable, or non-responsive for failure to meet Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines related to sub-contractors that the Kansas Department of Transportation certified as Disadvantage Business Enterprises.
