Contractor’s protest delays UNLV library

Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998 | 10:57 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A protest filed with the state Public Works Board is delaying the awarding of a contract for construction of the $40 million Lied Library at UNLV.

The apparent low bidder for the job was Tibesa Construction of Las Vegas who submitted a $40,482,858 price for the project. That's about $1.2 million below the state board's estimate.

The second low bidder, Grove Inc., also of Las Vegas, submitted a bid of $41,417,774. Grove filed the protest against awarding the contract to Tibesa.

Public Works Manager Eric Raecke said Grove is complaining that Tibesa did not follow the rules in submitting its bid. The law requires all subcontractors who will do more than 5 percent of the work on the project to be listed on the bid.

Grove said Tibesa did not include the subcontractors who will do the cabinet and concrete work on its bid. But Tibesa said it will do the work itself and doesn't have to list its name.

Raecke plans to meet with the state attorney general's office to review the protest. He said a contract will be awarded by the end of the week.

A $32.8 million appropriation for the library was approved by the 1997 Legislature to match the $15 million pledged by the Lied Foundation. The proposed 300,000-square-foot library will replace UNLV's Dickinson Library, part of which will be refurbished and used for the university's new law school.

The new library should be ready in early 2000.