Monday, March 19, 2007
Donations to Governor's Campaign Questioned
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Two major donors to Gov. Ernie Fletcher's re-election campaign benefited from a decision by the state Highway Department to use more expensive asphalt to rebuild a portion of Interstate 75 in Lexington.
A staff engineer had recommended using concrete, a material that would have saved the project more than $1 million, according to records obtained by The Courier-Journal of Louisville.
Transportation engineer Paul Looney wrote in a memo that the "concrete alternate was shown to be 23.82 percent cheaper on initial cost and 25.53 percent less on life-cycle cost."
Looney estimated that the concrete would have been about $1.1 million cheaper than the estimated $6 million cost of asphalt. The total amount of the contract awarded to L-M Asphalt Partners of Lexington was $25 million.
State Highway Commissioner Marc Williams said there are higher maintenance costs for concrete and there have been problems with concrete projects in recent years.
L-M Asphalt is a partnership of two Lexington companies; L-M Holdings, which is headed by Lexington asphalt contractor Leonard Lawson, and CR Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lexington road-building company Central Rock Mineral Co., whose chairman is William Sturgill of Lexington.
A staff engineer had recommended using concrete, a material that would have saved the project more than $1 million, according to records obtained by The Courier-Journal of Louisville.
Transportation engineer Paul Looney wrote in a memo that the "concrete alternate was shown to be 23.82 percent cheaper on initial cost and 25.53 percent less on life-cycle cost."
Looney estimated that the concrete would have been about $1.1 million cheaper than the estimated $6 million cost of asphalt. The total amount of the contract awarded to L-M Asphalt Partners of Lexington was $25 million.
State Highway Commissioner Marc Williams said there are higher maintenance costs for concrete and there have been problems with concrete projects in recent years.
L-M Asphalt is a partnership of two Lexington companies; L-M Holdings, which is headed by Lexington asphalt contractor Leonard Lawson, and CR Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lexington road-building company Central Rock Mineral Co., whose chairman is William Sturgill of Lexington.
# posted by Justin Mullins @ 4:10 PM 
