Not only is there no dirt flying, there's not even a bid request for the project.
"I would like nothing better than to award a contract and have Corrections have their needs addressed," said Elizabeth Ann "Liz" O'Reilly, deputy secretary for the state Department of Corrections and the point person for an $865 million statewide prison project that includes the $400 million Montgomery County prison.
"I think they'd rather spend money on their attorneys than on construction."
The Graterford project has been plagued by three problems - a disagreement over how it should be bid, the question of whether the workforce must be union, and the inability to find a bidder able to build the prison envisioned for the money available.
O'Reilly's department had put the project out for bid in the spring. None of the bidders met the price.
The department was in negotiations in July with the lowest bidder, Keating Building Corp., a Philadelphia union contractor. Then nearly four dozen nonunion construction workers and contractors, along with trade associations that represent open shops, filed a lawsuit against the state to stop the project.
The plaintiffs made two requests: an injunction to stop the department from awarding the contract, and not to require a project labor agreement as a bid specification.
Project labor agreements typically require contractors to pay union wages and, in some cases, use union workers. The unions guarantee a trained labor supply and promise there will be no work stoppages.
On Dec. 1, Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini refused to grant the request for an injunction; his decision has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.
