Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • April 9, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 11 FOCUS contractors and that increasing the revenue cap would create a larger pool of eligible companies. CCM said targeting distressed communities will further the bill's mission of creating economic oppor- tunity for all. Furthermore, the organization says the set-aside program's revenue threshold is long overdue for an in- crease and that the proposal "reflects inflationary growth." Opposing view But a lobbyist for the Mechanical Contractors Association challenged that assertion, citing the program's increased threshold in 2007 from $10 million to $15 million. The cost of living since then has not warranted increasing the cap to $30 million, the group said. Meanwhile, DAS Commissioner Melody Currey said her agency op- poses the bill because it undermines the ability of small businesses to compete with each other fairly. Currey said the set-aside pro- gram increases project costs for municipali- ties, but serves as a fair and equitable way to ensure that small businesses are brought into the marketplace. "It didn't seem fair and equi- table to do it that way," she said. "$30 million is a high bar for a small business." Incremental changes Established in 1977, the set- aside program was administered by the state Department of Economic and Com- munity Development until DAS took it over in 1999. DAS officials said the program has not been significantly changed in recent years, although the gross revenue cap increased to $15 million in 2007. According to DAS, state agencies in 2017 reported spending $234.1 million on small businesses and $130.1 million on minority-owned companies. Meanwhile, local governments re- ported spending almost $768,000 on small businesses and more than $1 million on minority contractors for projects that received state aid. According to the state's website, there are more than 2,500 small businesses certified as small or mi- nority contractors and hundreds of them are currently working on state contracts ranging from landscaping, temp staffing and snow removal, to construction services, graphic design and advertising. that can be linked together to lift and transport heavy loads such as pre- constructed bridge spans. The new bridge spans were con- structed near the Marion Avenue bridge site but away from traffic. During one weekend in June, and with much advance notice and coordina- tion with multiple parties, all traffic was diverted off I-84 onto on-and-off ramps, while the existing spans were demolished and new pre-constructed spans moved into place. While there was significant cost us- ing the SPMTs to transport pre-con- structed spans into place, DOT saved money in other areas. For example, DOT didn't need to widen bridges or the highway to accommodate traffic, since that section of I-84 was closed for a few days during construction. Another recent ABC example in 2016 involved the replacement of two bridge spans on I-95 over Oil Mill Road in Wa- terford using a lateral slide method. In this approach, the new spans were constructed in two halves. Then, during a 30-hour construction period, the existing spans were demolished and the new spans were slid into place. During the installation period, one lane of traffic was left open. While traffic backup was significant, it was short in overall time duration. Q. Is accelerated bridge construc- tion safe? A. Accelerated construction has Continued on next page >> State Agency Set-Aside Program Spending State agencies spent $364.2 million on certified small and minority contrac- tors in fiscal 2017. Here's a breakdown: Source: Department of Administrative Services Certified small business Certified minority business $0 $50 $100 $150 $200 $250 Total value of contracts (in millions of dollars) $234,130,950 $130,110,307 Do you know an epic business leader in our region? NOMINATE TODAY DEADLINE 4/18/18 www.HartfordBusiness.com/ourevents Click on Lifetime Achievement Awards PRESENTING SPONSOR: EDUCATION LEADERSHIP SPONSOR:

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