Force account rules require that counties, townships and municipalities estimate the cost of each project. If the estimates exceed the limits set by a 2003 state law, the project must be put up for bid to private contractors.
Champaign County Engineer Fereidoun Shokouhi, a Republican, said, “This is the most serious issue that my office, as well as every other engineer’s office in the state of Ohio, is facing.”
In 2003, no adjustment for inflation was included.
Shokouhi, said his office and others have to break large projects into smaller ones or offer the contracts to private businesses while local county workers are capable of doing the same work, often at a better value to taxpayers.
Johnathan Burr, a fellow Republican and Clark County’s engineer, said one of his primary duties is to make sure enough staff is available in the winter to keep roads clear. But during the spring and summer, he needs to make sure his staff has enough work to stay busy and can maintain the county’s infrastructure at the best price.
Most complex construction projects are offered to private contractors, because his staff sometimes doesn’t have the equipment or manpower necessary to complete the task, Burr said. But smaller projects, including many bridges, that could be done in-house are increasingly being offered for competitive bidding to private contractors.
“The trouble is I’m paying my guys, and I’m paying a contractor to do it, too,” Burr said.
James Surber, a Democrat and Darke County’s engineer, said force account laws have been in effect since the 1960s. The limits vary between public entities, but at the county level, road repair projects must be completed at $30,000 per mile or less, while bridge construction projects were adjusted to allow projects of $100,000 or less.
To comply with the law, Shokouhi said his staff has to be more creative when planning projects.
For example, a road repair project that exceeds the $30,000 per mile limit can be broken into several separate projects to remain below the cap. But in doing so, the county would pay more for gas, transportation and labor, he said.
Surber pointed out a bridge rehabilitation project in his county that cost $99,000, barely coming in under the cap.
He estimated that by putting it up for bid, the same project could have cost as much as $300,000. Surber said his office would either be faced with a choice of spending more than necessary for the project or putting it on hold. If it continued to deteriorate, the 46-year old bridge could have cost up to $1.5 million to replace.
Chris Runyan, president of the Ohio Contractor’s Association, said the topic is one of the few areas in which private contractors and county engineers disagree. Runyan said private and public contractors have different skills and duties, and he said the challenge is finding a fair balance.
“As those limits are raised, they begin to limit more and more the projects that private companies can bid and work on,” Runyan said.
While county offices want to keep their staffs busy year-round, private companies must move from project to project to maintain steady work. When little work is available, private companies often lay off workers until a new project becomes available.
“In the winter months, a contractor lays off staff they can’t keep busy,” Runyan said. “That is a very different option for public sector employees.”
County engineers don’t have to worry about making money.
“County engineers have a staff level that’s necessary basically to plow roads in the winter, and they need to keep their staff occupied year-round,” Runyan said.
Runyan said if the limits were raised, it could particularly affect smaller contractors who depend on work from townships and counties.
But Doug Reinhart, a Republican who serves as the Auglaize County engineer, said he believes he owes it to taxpayers to make sure his staff earns their pay year-round. Because they aren’t out to make a profit, county workers can often do some at a better price to taxpayers, Reinhart said.
“I want to keep them busy 12 months a year,” he said. “I don’t want to justify our existence in the four months a year we have snow.”
Shokouhi said that on more complex projects, county workers don’t have the same equipment or abilities that private contractors do. However, by limiting the projects that public engineers can do in-house, taxpayers often don’t get the best value for their dollar.
“We need them, we want them, and any time we have to bid, we want 200 of them to show up,” Shokouhi said of private contractors.
Reinhart said the cost for construction materials spiked, meaning counties can no longer complete the same amount of work they were able to less than a decade ago.
A ton of hot mix for roads that cost Reinhart $27.40 a ton in 2003 now costs $64.50, for example. Ready mix concrete that cost $65 a yard now costs $92 a yard.
“2003 may not have been that long ago, but what happened at the same time was construction inflation went rampant,” Reinhart said.
According to information from the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of highway and street construction has risen by more than 60 percent between January 2003 and June 2010.
“We are just asking to let us build the size of the bridges and the length of the roads that we were able to build in 2003,” Shokouhi said.
Runyan said there have been no recent proposals to make any changes to the force account limits. He said it’s one of the few issues in which contractors and county employees are at odds.
“Unfortunately it does come up often, and I wish that it did not place two entities that are generally on the same page at odds on this issue,” Runyan said.
While county offices believe the solution is to allow the force account limits to adjust for inflation, Runyan said it will be difficult to resolve the issue as long as the force account limits are based on a specific monetary limit.
“I really hope at some point we can find a better way to determine where that line should be drawn,” he said.
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