BY KELLY HANNON
Two towing companies in Fredericksburg were paid $18,880 each by the state to position tow trucks at six Interstate 95 exits over three days for the inauguration of President Obama.
The service turned out to be unnecessary. The traffic gridlock that was anticipated never materialized, and the towing companies did not remove a single car or bus.
The $37,760 price tag looms as the state searches for a way to trim $600 million from the Virginia Department of Transportation's budget by cutting positions, closing rest areas and limiting mowing.
It's not known whether the state could have gotten a better price. The decision to hire towing services was made only a week before the inauguration, so standard procurement procedures were bypassed.
Gov. Tim Kaine had by then declared a state of emergency, allowing the state to hire from a pool of eight towing companies in the Fredericksburg area that regularly worked for VDOT, instead of opening up the work to all bidders.
Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey defended the hires as necessary to make the roads accessible for people traveling to the inauguration. "It was a public-safety issue. The goal is to keep the roads open and clear," Hickey said.
The state has applied for federal reimbursement for all inauguration-related expenses, Hickey said, and is waiting for a response.
state worried about traffinc standing still
worry over traffic standstill brouAt the time the hiring decision was made, state officials were worried that traffic on I-95 would be at a standstill before and after the inauguration, possibly as far south as Fredericksburg. Before the event, estimates for attendance ranged from 2 million to 4 million people.
VDOT owns towing equipment in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to remove disabled cars and charter buses, so there was no need to hire private towing services in those districts, said Robert Prezioso, VDOT's acting state maintenance engineer.
In Hampton Roads, "If a vehicle breaks down in the tunnel, we drive our tow truck down there and get it out of the tunnel to keep traffic moving," Prezioso said. VDOT then asks the vehicle owner to call a private tow truck to transport the car to wherever the owner can get it serviced.
But VDOT does not own tow trucks in the Fredericksburg area.
VDOT planned to have trucks standing by
Before the inauguration, VDOT planned to have seven agency-owned tow trucks stationed on the Capital Beltway, on Interstate 66, at the Springfield Interchange and on major bridges.
But Virginia Secretary
VDOT officials wrote back to say that safety service patrols would be running from Thornburg to Dumfries on I-95. Service patrols are VDOT employees in small trucks who help disabled vehicles. But the patrols are not equipped to tow a car or charter bus. VDOT officials told Ekern they would work to procure private towing in the Fredericksburg area.
Under a state of emergency, VDOT can hire towing services for a "reasonable" rate, Prezioso said.
He asked VDOT's Fredericksburg District equipment shop for names and contact information for private towers it had used.
Prezioso received a list of eight companies.
The job came with a few stipulations.
The towing companies had to have three drivers and three tow trucks stationed at specific I-95 exits from 7 a.m. Monday, Jan. 19, to 11 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21, a total of 64 hours.
heavy-duty tow trucks planned for buses
Also, each company had to have a heavy-duty tow truck capable of towing a charter bus. Officials expected a large number of charter buses to carry passengers into Washington.
Most of the eight companies were eliminated because they did not have adequate equipment or staffing levels, Prezioso said.
VDOT decided to hire Coleman Motor Co. and Highway Garage Inc.
The agreed-upon rate was $85 an hour for each standard tow truck and driver, and $125 an hour for each heavy-duty tow truck and driver.
Highway Garage had standard tow trucks positioned at the Garrisonville Road and U.S. 17 exits on I-95 and a heavy-duty truck at the Centreport Parkway exit.
Coleman had standard tow trucks at the Spotsylvania and Thornburg exits, and a heavy-duty truck at State Route 3.
towing companies were to document cases
In the signed contracts, VDOT asked them to "tow stranded vehicles to the nearest safe location off the paved portion of the interstate." The companies were supposed to document each vehicle towed, the vehicle make and model, license plate number and state of registration, and where the vehicle was left.
VDOT did not plan to bill the vehicle owners for towing costs, Prezioso said. The operation was simply to prevent the vehicles from obstructing traffic.
Paul Stephens, operations manager for Coleman, said he thinks his company was chosen because it had previously worked with VDOT, towing its dump trucks. Also, Coleman had 20 trucks and sufficient staff to meet the job requirements while keeping its regular towing business open, he said.
If VDOT had not hired tow trucks, and there had been a massive traffic jam on I-95, it would have been criticized, Stephens said.
"This was an unprecedented event. There had never been an event like this, with the numbers they were going to have," Stephens said. "In my opinion, whether we were the towing company or there was another towing company it was very forward-thinking."
garage owner says planning was good idea
Ray Hodge, owner of Highway Garage, said having tow trucks ready to go along I-95 in Fredericksburg was smart preparation for the estimated crowd size.
"It could've been a real mess if they hadn't of been prepared. They were prepared," Hodge said.
Hodge's towing company has been operating in the area since 1960. He said the $85-an-hour rate for a standard tow truck and $125 an hour for a heavy-duty truck are fair rates.
"That's a little on the cheap side," Hodge said.
Coleman said he quoted VDOT prices directly from the company's rate sheet.
company owners sit
The owners of Highway Garage and Coleman both sit on the Virginia State Board for Towing and Recovery Operators, which has 20 members from towing businesses, law enforcement and Virginia safety agencies.
The board sets training and qualification standards for towing professionals.
Prezioso said he was not aware that the companies hired for inaugural towing were owned by members of the state board.
Cary Coleman, owner of Coleman Motor Co., was appointed to the state board by Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell. Hodge was appointed to the board by the Virginia Senate.
Both men have terms that expire in June.
Stephens said the seats on the board have nothing to do with the hires--both companies were simply on the list at the VDOT equipment shop, and they were contacted by VDOT, not the other way around. He think the hires were made based on equipment and staffing.
"I don't think one has anything to do with the other," Stephens said.
Prezioso said that if VDOT had known a week sooner that towing would be requested for the Fredericksburg area, the work could have been bid through standard procurement procedures. The contract would have been posted to eVa, the state's online advertising site for bids.
"The request came to us late in the game," he said.
Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com