How many change orders are too many?
Why it costs the OTA 12 times more to build a road that ODOT
As a Civil Engineer just starting to learn about the OTA almost three years ago, I could never understand WHY it cost the OTA orders of magnitude more than ODOT to build the same type of roadway. The OTA’s Corridor manager POE, argued with me at several townhalls in early 2022 that it just wasn’t true that it cost more. But that was a complete lie because by the monetary amounts listed on the OTA’s own website, their PER MILE construction costs are so much higher than ODOT.
Just look at the proposed costs on the East-West Connector
That’s $1.5 billion for 28 miles or $53 MILLION/Mile. And we know from the Driving Forward debacle, that they went almost 100% over budget (which is why they are still widening the Turner using the new bond monies on ACCESS; because they somehow ran out of bond monies with Driving Forward).
Back in March 2023, Michael Nash provided an analysis of the cost differential. We still haven’t gotten an answer from OTA about why the costs are so much higher, but then I started watching their agenda packets and payment registries.
Large-Dollar Change Orders
There are a staggering number of large-dollar change orders on every single contract; from engineering design to highway contractors.
In fact, the most recent payment registry shows that Gilcrease Developers, LLC submitted their THIRTY-THIRD change order for $4,260,806.58 on the Gilcrease Expressway. Their change-order was for “unrecoverable overhead - supplemental agreement items,” and “unrecoverable overhead/direct cost - third party utility delays.”
Wow.
Where can I get a gig where someone pays me $4 million dollars to wait around for 72 days of delays? I would get so many more books read just hanging around waiting on utility relocations!
The Gilcrease Developers LLC’s previous change orders totaled $7,221,260.91 out of a contract for $270,794,708.49…. On the Gilcrease……. you know the road that USED to be free for its residents….. that is only FIVE MILES LONG.
The Gilcrease that is a “non-system” turnpike with really shady financials. And this contract is only for the “grade, drainage, bridge & surface.” So Gilcrease Developers, LLC (conveniently formed in October 2019) gets $54 MILLION/mile.
I will talk more specifically about the Gilcrease in another post.
Cost Differential between OTA and ODOT
And herein lies the problem on severe cost differentials between OTA and ODOT. Because the OTA doesn’t fully vet their projects by completing environmental studies, accurate revenue or traffic projections, or have any meaningful collaborations with local municipalities and the citizens along with trying to build roads as fast as they can so no one can stop them, their scope of work on the original contract is often woefully inadequate.
The contractor and engineering consultants know this and gleefully submit change order after change order that are always rubber-stamped *YES* at the board meetings. Because the OTA’s revenue bond sales are almost limitless, they seemingly don’t care as much as say, ODOT, about multiple change orders to the tune of millions of dollars over and above original contracts. ODOT contract change-orders are limited by the federal government when federal dollars are in use.
This is how the OTA BUYS secrecy and compliance from their engineering consultants, highway contractors and everyone who is involved in the process of building roadways that haven’t been legislatively authorized…. like… the GILCREASE, the KICKAPOO and the proposed turnpikes through Cleveland County.
Any engineer or contractor that you talk to will tell you they prefer to work for the OTA because the fees and payouts are ASTRONOMICAL. We teach ethics in engineering… but in Oklahoma, the engineering community has seemingly forgot their lessons.
Maybe if these engineers got out from behind their desks and came to see what was actually going on in the communities, they’d change their tune. Or maybe not. People have to eat, right?
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather eat with my family and friends at MY DINING ROOM TABLE in MY HOUSE, that I paid for with MY MONEY, that I supposedly OWN (as long as I keep paying my property taxes) . If this turnpike goes through, 10,000 of us will be left searching for a place to sit down and eat.
This is nothing more than a Laundry scheme using Bond money that has no accountability to the public or the state representative body. Our STATE AG and legislative body should be and NEEDS to put a stop to this type of business practice in our state that is effecting so many citizens in our state. This example CO is nothing but a laundry scheme between the OTA bond issuers and the companies set up to specifically do the work OTA is cooping to have done.
Wow. These are startling numbers, or at least they should be!