Judge delays Route 110 construction bid

A state Supreme Court judge has allowed new arguments from a contractor who claims he was unfairly disqualified from renovating Route 110 in Halesite. The decision creates another delay in solving the perpetually flooded roadway.

Anthony Labriola, owner of A.L.A.C. Contracting of West Babylon, last year was the second-lowest bidder for the road renovation project. In July, state Department of Transportation officials discovered that the winning contractor could not post a performance and payment bond guaranteeing its finances. The DOT then canceled all agreements with the contractor and ended the bid process.

Labriola won an injunction in state Supreme Court in Nassau County, after claiming the bid process was mismanaged. A Nassau State Supreme Court judge lifted the injunction in January, allowing the bid process to continue.

State DOT officials said the latest bids would be opened on March 24 with the lowest apparent bidder winning the $18.9-million flood mitigation project between Prime Avenue/Madison Street and Young's Hill Road.

But on March 23, in response to a "motion to reargue" filed by Labriola in mid-February, Judge Stephen A. Bucaria ruled that all proceedings in relation to the bids be put on hold at least until April 4.

"We are committed to swiftly moving the process forward so that the commuting public can travel safely on Route 110," Lauren Passalacqua, spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office, said Monday."Eileen Peters, regional spokeswoman for the DOT, referred all questions to the state attorney general's office.

Labriola's attorney, Steven Cohn of Carle Place, said Monday that he is looking forward to "presenting to the court our arguments as to what the state improperly did in order to have the job rebid."

He added, "We really think it's unfortunate. . .that the state took it upon itself to rebid the job when they could have started last year and probably had the job well towards completion by now."