Photo by Jana Birchum

Demolition work is a dirty business, and fewer jobs have demonstrated that more than the dismantling of the Holly Street Power Plant – and the project hasn't even begun.

As City Council convenes today (Thurs­day) to consider awarding a multimillion-dollar contract for the disassembly and remediation of the East Austin site, the planned project has already been hit with a flurry of allegations from competing bidders, with two formal protests and a lawsuit filed and quickly dismissed.

At issue is how city staff settled on its top choice, TRC Environmental Corp., which submitted the second-costliest proposal out of six bids submitted. One low-scoring bidder, CST Environ­mental LP, has already threatened to refile its lawsuit, dismissed earlier this month, once a contract is signed.

City staff is recommending awarding the contract to TRC for $26.1 million, which includes a $1.2 million contingency in the event of an unforeseen event occurring during the project. Council also has the option of selecting the No. 2 choice, Dixie Demoli­tion, which bid $18.7 million. Awarding the contract to TRC, the second-highest of six bids, would require dipping into Austin Ener­gy's operating budget to increase appropriations for the Holly project, which the city initially estimated would cost $10 million. The agenda item notes the concerns raised by the Electric Utility Com­mis­sion, which approved the proposal but questioned the fiscal wisdom of selecting a higher-priced contractor, given that its evaluation score was less than a percentage point higher than Dixie. City staff has denied Dixie's request for a protest hearing, and it's uncertain whether the company is planning to take legal action if TRC is awarded the contract.

Earlier this week, Mayor Lee Leffingwell expressed concern about the cost difference between the top two competitors, which ranked "almost dead-even" on the city's scoring system. "We'll need to have some discussion about why, exactly, this cost difference should be disregarded," he said. What the higher-priced bidder has in its favor, he added, is a local presence and a sizeable number of minority- and women-owned businesses on its team. "I've heard some suggestions about postponing or rebidding," he said, "but I don't know how that's going to play out."

Both Dixie and CST have questioned TRC's ability to handle a demolition project of this size in an environmentally and politically sensitive area of the city. Holly is located on the shores of Lady Bird Lake in a largely Hispanic neighborhood, where residents sharpened their activism skills protesting the power plant.

TRC Project Manager Mike Holder declined to comment on specific claims brought by competitors but provided a statement, noting, "This is a complex project, and we believe that we offer the best strategic plan and the best value to the City."

It's possible that TRC's inclusion of Hispanic contractors stood out in the minds of staff members weighing the decision. In comparisons between TRC and Dixie, TRC scored higher on its overall number of minority subcontractors, with a 19.85% Hispanic participation rate, compared to Dixie's 15.38%.

"It will be a historical vote, regardless of who gets the contract," said Gavino Fer­nan­dez, who serves with a handful of other neighborhood representatives on the Holly plant closure committee. At the same time, he said the dollar amount being disputed shouldn't be a deciding factor in awarding the contract, given the nature of the project. "You're talking years of contamination and years of toxic emissions," he said. "We'd rather have that investment. Our biggest fear is that [the vote] will be delayed."

Another committee member, Lela Castro, who grew up next door to the Holly plant, said she supports the contract going to TRC and would prefer that the city spend whatever is necessary to ensure the job is done right. "We don't want to go cheap," she said. "It's not a matter of tearing it down; it's a matter of tearing it down the right way."

Once the last bits of debris have been hauled away and the dust has cleared, the city plans to build a park on a portion of the 22-acre site. Other plans for the location are uncertain, but some neighbors have already made clear they do not want a city-funded museum or any other facility that would bring more traffic and trash to the neighborhood, which already serves as a de facto parking lot for events held at nearby Fiesta Gar­dens. Apart from the traffic concerns, neighborhood residents are chiefly concerned about the steady rise in property taxes as East Austin, with its proximity to Downtown, becomes more attractive to people with higher incomes and less affordable for existing residents.

The demolition process could take years to complete and will require some deft maneuvering, perhaps including building a temporary road to handle all the back-and-forth of work crews and heavy-equipment operators.

The plant operated for 47 years, despite decades of neighborhood opposition to its persistent noise, bright lights, oil leaks, and a series of fires in the Nineties. The city began the phasing out of the power plant in 2004, with the last turbine finally shuttered in September 2007.