A Pennsylvania judge halted a $29 million construction project at Lehigh Valley International Airport after ruling the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority likely violated its own rules when it awarded a contract late last year.
In a ruling filed last week, Commonwealth Court President Judge Emeritus Mary Hannah Leavitt placed an injunction on a connector bridge project at the Hanover Township, Lehigh County, facility. The bridge is intended to improve the flow of foot traffic between the airport’s main terminal, where passengers check in and go through security, and the Wiley Post Terminal, where they board their flights. The airport broke ground on the project in late May.
Authority spokesperson Colin Riccobon said in a prepared statement Monday that the authority is considering its legal options after being notified of the ruling.
“The Airport Authority strongly disagrees with the Commonwealth Court’s opinion,” he said. “Because of the critical nature of the project for ABE passengers (operational, safety, and security), the LNAA is currently discussing options to move the project forward on an expeditious and cost effective path.”
In the lawsuit, Anthony Pritash of Northampton and Richard Reinhard, an employee of losing bidder IMC Construction, contend the authority should have awarded IMC a $20.8 million contract for the work. Instead, the authority awarded a $20 million contract to Bracy Construction of South Whitehall Township.
According to court documents, the authority required companies to submit their proposals for the bridge project by Nov. 2. Two minutes before the deadline, Bracy submitted a proposal for $18.6 million. However, after the deadline passed but before the contracts were compared, Bracy officials informed the authority of an error in its submission — the proposal should have been worth $20 million, according to court documents.
IMC filed a protest, arguing Bracy’s corrected contract failed to meet the deadline and should not be considered. The authority allowed the amended bid to proceed, according to court documents. When the bids were opened, Bracy’s was the lowest, beating IMC’s bid of $20.8 million. After its complaint with the authority proved unsuccessful, IMC filed a lawsuit against the authority in January in Lehigh County Court. IMC lost its trial and an appeal at the county level before appealing to Commonwealth Court.
Government agencies like the airport authority exist in a unique limbo between state and local government. While its existence hedges off an agreement between Lehigh and Northampton counties, it’s independent of both counties and functions in some regards as a state entity.
Airport officials argued Reinhard and Pritash lacked standing to appeal the contract, claiming laws applying to state agencies would only allow IMC itself to pursue a lawsuit. Pritash, who serves on Northampton Borough Council, and Reinhard, who lives in Lehigh County, contended that laws pertaining to local agencies allow them to intervene as local taxpayers interested in good government.
In her ruling, Leavitt ruled that municipal contract standards should apply to the authority, which would allow Pritash and Reinhard to pursue the case. She also found that the airport authority violated its own rules by allowing Bracy to fix its error, meaning Pritash and Reinhard are likely to succeed in their lawsuit.
“Because LNAA allowed Bracy to amend a unit price line item after the bid deadline through an unauthorized mechanism, Bracy was given a competitive advantage that other bidders did not receive,” Leavitt ruled.
Leavitt ordered construction on the bridge project stop until the end or the year or the end of the appeal, whichever is earlier. Construction on the bridge is not an emergency, she found, and is only 5% complete. While the work stoppage may inconvenience the airport and travelers, that’s outweighed by the public interest in a fair bidding process involving taxpayer dollars.
Ed Seglias, an attorney representing Pritash and Reinhard, said no court date has been set for the case’s next hearing. While Leavitt’s ruling cleared a major hurdle for his clients, the lawsuit has not been decided.
“We need to address the issues that are still remaining,” Seglias said.
Morning Call reporter Tom Shortell can be reached at 610-820-6168 or tshortell@mcall.com.
