Minority firms told no deal on expected Brightwater work

A group of small, minority-owned Seattle-area trucking companies that had expected to start working on the Brightwater sewage-treatment plant Monday got some bad news at the last minute: Their services won't be needed.

The Trucker's Consortium, a group of 10 local owners of 25 trucks, got word Friday that, instead, a big corporation will be hauling dirt excavated from a deep tunnel that will carry treated sewage to Puget Sound from the $1.8 billion plant under construction north of Woodinville.

Consortium members announced their loss of subcontract work to the Metropolitan King County Council on Monday and said it was a blow for small businesses and minority entrepreneurs trying to get a piece of public-works contracts.

Lionel Suquet, project manager for a three-way joint venture digging the tunnel, said he had chosen Parsons — an international construction firm and a member of the joint venture — because it submitted "the best commercial bid" for the job. "It's done."

Consortium members said many "small-business" subcontracts on Sound Transit and King County projects are going to a few companies with millions of dollars in revenues.

"Millions and millions of dollars went past us since Brightwater started, and we haven't gotten a dime," said M.T. Phillips, a consortium member who said he now stands to lose his dump truck. Like most consortium members, he is African American.

Larry Vinson, spokesman for the consortium, said the consortium had a "handshake" agreement with a subcontractor, L&J Construction, a family-owned company in Cle Elum, Kittitas County, to dispose of spoils from the central portion of the 14-mile sewage tunnel. Until now, L&J has been disposing of dirt.

But L&J was informed late last week that Parsons had been selected to finish the job. Pasadena-based Parsons is in a joint venture with French-owned Vinci and German-owned Frontier-Kemper in the $211 million contract to dig the central tunnel.

Several County Council members expressed frustration over the loss of potential minority and small-business contractors. "They work here, they've been doing business here, some for 25 years," said Councilmember Larry Phillips, D-Seattle. "They raise their families here and yet they can't compete successfully for some of these significant contracts."

For the Brightwater central tunnel, the county had set a goal to award 10 percent of the work to small businesses. So far, small businesses have done 4 ½ percent, which wastewater-treatment director Christie True said is "not bad at all," considering the project is still ramping up.

Even though the new contract with Parsons means 11 small businesses won't work on the project, Suquet said, the joint venture "absolutely" will meet its small-business target. He said small businesses are doing surveying, electrical work, tunnel lining and steel rebar work.

Suquet said L&J shouldn't have been surprised it was replaced because it knew Vinci had put the remainder of the job out to bid.

Les Engelhart, whose family owns L&J, said Suquet at one point wrote a letter to L&J's bank saying he expected L&J to complete the job. "I invested everything into these brand-new dump trucks," Engelhart said. "I've committed to the subs. They've invested. If this guy thinks he can go out for a dollar cheaper, there's something wrong."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com