The general manager of the Pickens County Herald said a corrupt file likely caused an error in a legal ad placed by the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT).
Mike Moore told 1819 News ALDOT placed the ad, which was a bid for the final phase of the Gordo Bypass project. The ad was posted online but was left out of the printed version.
"We lay the paper out all hours of the night and when we came in to send it to Haleyville to be printed at our sister paper, we realized some things had been deleted or something had happened to the file," Moore explained.
"I don't know if it got corrupt, so we had to go through that process," Moore said. "So, it accidentally got left out. "We did run it online and when we realized it did not run because we checked it after it published, we called DOT."
Moore said the ad did run for the proper amount of time following the incident. He said it was an accident.
"You know, it's just a corrupt file or, you know, some type of error, but, you know, things happen," he added.
ALDOT said the error cost "the state an additional $1.76 million" because when the original bid process was over, all of the submitted bids were made public. However, the state had to redo the entire process, and by that time, lower bidders realized they could bid much higher on the project.
State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine), who serves on the Joint Transportation Committee, believes the state should consider updating the bidding process. He believes the error cost taxpayers upwards of $2 million
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email erica.thomas@1819news.com.
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