Portland wi-fi takedown cost may be only $36,700
The City of Portland reports that it has received a dozen bids to remove the leftover "free" municipal wi-fi equipment from poles around town. The city estimated that the cost of the project could run as high as $200,000, and two of the bids were even higher than that. but one bidder -- EC Company -- bid $36,700.
The complete list of bid results is here. There is no word yet on when a final decision will be announced.
| Posted at 3:44 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (14)
That's a pretty crazy range--$36,000 to $350,000? I wonder how you can get a 10x difference for a project like this?
Posted by Dave J. | February 24, 2010 4:04 PM
Now now, the top bid was only $322,500.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 24, 2010 4:08 PM
Headline should read "wi-fi shakedown".
Posted by none | February 24, 2010 4:17 PM
Almost anyone with a rented bucket truck and a couple of men could get the job done inside of two weeks.
Posted by Dave A. | February 24, 2010 5:06 PM
I'm sure EC already owns the bucket trucks and has employees ready to go. I wonder what the resale market for the equipment is like.
Posted by Jupe Blue | February 24, 2010 5:09 PM
My guess is they figure the equipment has a lot of value in it.
Posted by canucken | February 24, 2010 5:32 PM
I don't know that the contractor gets to keep any of it. The city has donated some of it to the Personal Telco project, and as I recall the previous owner, MetroFi, posted these units on eBay and got an underwhelming response.
Posted by Jack Bog | February 24, 2010 5:35 PM
Remember those 3" rings .... embedded in Portland sidewalks? Right on the curb. You remember them. They were for horses. Betcha can't find 'em in 2010..but in the '70s, 80's 90's.. you could see 'em there. Cost for removal: $0.
Posted by got logic? | February 24, 2010 7:29 PM
I can find a few of those rings... they are everywhere:
http://www.horseproject.net/
Posted by jb | February 24, 2010 8:45 PM
Betcha can't find 'em in 2010
Uh, I can find one right in front of my house, one right in front of my neighbor's house, one in front of the house next to my neighbor's house...
Posted by Dave J. | February 24, 2010 9:33 PM
If the EC Company is the one I know, it's a legitimate bid. The EC is for Electrical Construction; they're over on NW Thurman.
However, with a range of bids like that, they'll need to verify their price, since it should be taken as a constructive notice of mistake in bid.
Part of the discrepancy might be from the adequacy of the scope or work for the request for bids. It looks like there may be some misunderstanding there, which can make for interesting post-award discussions.
Posted by TomR | February 24, 2010 11:01 PM
Poor naive Portland - What makes you think the Geniuses will take the low bid? Factors such as Owner's albedo, sexual minority status, campaign donation profile, Goldschmidt Proximity Number™ and PSU Alumni status are far more important than mere money.
Posted by Morbius | February 25, 2010 12:20 AM
Again, what's the cost of letting them rot where they sit? Is that extra 5 pounds of plastic and silicon going to cause the street lamps and traffic signals that they are mounted on to fall over?
It's not like they are a massive eyesore or somthing - it's one more lump of stuff on top of a steel pole.
Posted by MachineShedFred | February 26, 2010 8:41 AM
In other news, the low bidder and the next low bidder have figured out that, if the low bidder withdraws, the next lower bidder gets it, pays low bidder twice their bid to do the job, and pockets the difference for doing nothing. Film at 11.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2010/02/cost_of_portlands_wi-fi_remova.html
Posted by George Anonymuncule Seldes | February 26, 2010 9:00 PM