The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey opened bids August 13 on contract HT-224.209, Holland Tunnel, Replacement of Medium Voltage Transformers. Three electrical contractors bid. The job was first advertised with bids due July 28; the opening came more than two weeks later.
PJS Electric, Inc. is the apparent low at $5,976,000. CRC Associates Inc. is second at $6,996,000. Daidone Electric, Inc. is third at $7,848,000. The Port Authority's advertisement put the estimate range at $5 million to $10 million, so all three numbers landed inside it, and the low sits near the bottom of the band.
Do the math. PJS beat CRC by $1,020,000, or 17.1 percent. From low to high is $1,872,000, a spread of 31.3 percent. For three bids that is a clean read: nobody was wildly off, but the low was not close either. The Port Authority labels these preliminary bid results. An apparent low is not an award until the Authority makes one.
The work sits on both sides of the river. Per the advertisement, the contract replaces medium voltage transformers and associated equipment, with modifications to partitions, doors, channel framing and fencing, structural work including steel beams and concrete pads, and maintenance of traffic and work area protection. The sites are the New Jersey Land and River Ventilation Buildings, the New Jersey Administration Building and Toll Building in Jersey City, and the New York Entrance Portal Building and New York Land and River Ventilation Buildings in Manhattan. The advertisement lists no M/WBE or DBE goal figure; it carries the Authority's standard nondiscrimination and fair-opportunity language.
Why this matters. Tunnel electrical work is its own world: live traffic, ventilation buildings that cannot go dark, and a short list of shops that can carry it. Three bidders on a $5 million to $10 million transformer job says that list is short. PJS turned up on another public power job a few weeks later: on the state's Farmingdale emergency power package that opened September 2, PJS bid $5,455,426 and finished ninth of ten ranked bidders. Same firm, two power jobs, two very different results.
What to do next. Switchgear and transformer suppliers, steel and concrete subs, and maintenance-of-traffic outfits should get in front of PJS on this one, but wait for the Port Authority's award before counting on it. If you are an electrical contractor who passed on this bid, note the range and the spread: a field this small means a firm that can staff tunnel work has room to compete on the next Port Authority power package.