Lack of competition for KYTC’s asphalt contracts costs taxpayers $46.9 million in first six months of 2023

The following information was provided to the General Assembly’s interim Transportation Committee today:

As the interim Transportation Committee starts its work this year, I wanted to bring to your attention my analysis of the Transportation Cabinet's single-bid contracts for the first six months of 2023. 

The approach has been updated to more carefully consider the impact the lack of competition has on the large number of asphalt-related contracts awarded by KYTC. In the first six months of this year, the lack of a second bidder costs taxpayers $46.9 million more than if there was competitive bidding for those projects. That's $46.9 million that cannot be allocated to additional projects in member's districts or other transportation and safety needs for Kentuckians. 

From January through June, KYTC awarded 197 single-bid asphalt-related contracts totaling $358,338,725. Those awards were compared against a competitive scenario (which is described below and in the attached spreadsheet) to determine that the industry's bids were $46,918,142 higher than if a second bidder bid on the projects. 

As always, a lot of effort is made to ensure the data from KYTC’s publicly available information are accurately entered into the attached spreadsheet. I welcome feedback from the cabinet, the industry or anyone else if there are mistakes.

- A.McNeill