Prince George Chev Dealer

Too much sand costs plenty, while sisters' paving company racks up contracts

Too much sand ordered for the Montebello water treatment plants has resulted in the city paying $348,938 to RK Hydro-Vac of Piqua, Ohio.

The settlement – compensating the company for fixed costs associated with storing and handling the excess sand – was one of about 25 major spending items approved by the Baltimore Board of Estimates at its August 10 meeting.

The Brew yesterday, Rudolph S. Chow, chief of the bureau of water and wastewater, said the city “only took delivery of what we needed at the Montebello plant” and the extra quantity was stored by RK Hydro-Vac.

The company complained that, stuck with the sand, it incurred “overhead charges for the undelivered quantities” and demanded reimbursement. Chow did not respond to questions about the overall cost of filter sand, which is used to purify city drinking water.

$9 Million to M. Luis Construction

In other news, M. Luis Construction Co. solidified its recent dominance of city paving contracts by winning $9,196,153 as lowest bidder of three separate repaving contracts approved by the Board of Estimates.

The company is currently repaving Harford Road between North Ave. and Chesterfield Ave. under a $4.9 million contract.

Baltimore-based M. Luis is owned by sisters Cidalia Luis-Akbar and Natalia Luis, daughters of company founder Manuel Luis, a Portuguese immigrant. The company has grown exponentially in recent years, winning pavement contracts in Prince George’s, Montgomery, Howard and Baltimore counties as well as Baltimore city.

M. Luis also won a $920,400 contract to reconstruct “footways citywide,” according to board records. Luis was the lowest bidder on another $929,424 footways contract awarded earlier this year.

Three “disadvantaged business enterprises” (DBEs) will share in the pavement contracts – Fallsway Construction, Rowen Concrete and P&J Contracting.