American Pavement Systems, Inc. 1012 11th Street #1000 Modesto, CA 95354 Phone (209) 522-2277 (209) 408-0427 Fax CA Contractor License # 943792A
April 25, 2023
Ed Nakayama, Project Manager
Public Works Department
City of Fremont
39550 Liberty Street
Fremont, CA 94537
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Re: 2023 Cape and Slurry Seal Project
Bid Protest of the Apparent Low Bidder: VSS International
American Pavement Systems, Inc. (APS) has received and reviewed the Bid Protest Response letter from VSS International (VSS) and disagrees with their position. It is very clear on Page 1 of the Bid Proposal that the bidder must enter the date that they received the Addendum, by VSS simply placing a “1”, it does not satisfy this requirement, as “1” is not a date. Contrary to VSS’ claim of submitting the revised bid schedule from Addendum 1 does not mean that they acknowledged the entire Addendum at bid time. The City made other changes to the plan sheets, not just the bid schedule and VSS did not properly acknowledge these changes at bid time. If they had acknowledged them, then their bid price may have been different which is a material change.
VSS has also made a claim that APS’ protest is not valid, as it was not copied to them and other bidders when it was sent to the City of Fremont. APS was notified by Dryco Construction last week that VSS had submitted a Bid Protest of Dryco Construction’s bid, yet to our knowledge, Dryco nor APS received a copy of that Bid Protest, so I am unsure if there was a protest or not. If the City did receive a Bid Protest from VSS and APS’ protest is seen as not valid by the City of Fremont per VSS’ request, VSS’ protest of Dryco’s bid should be invalidated as well.
We request that VSS’ bid be found non-responsive and that the City of Fremont award this project to the next responsible and responsive bidder, or at the very least put the project out to rebid so that it is fair to all bidders.
If you have any questions, please contact me.
Sincerely,
AMERICAN PAVEMENT SYSTEMS, INC.
David Pimley
Vice President, Chip Seal Division