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Road Warrior

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The Journal later reported that specifications from the Koch proposal were used to draft the RFP (request for proposals) to bid the highway. Koch won the contract when no one else bothered to submit a bid. The Journal also quoted Koch executive Bob Heitmann, who confirmed that the "unsolicited" offer from his company had in fact been solicited earlier by employees within Rahn's office.

In response to the Journal series, Rahn drafted a handout critical of the newspaper's reporting and denied knowing of anyone in his office who contacted Koch about the N.M. 44 bid.

Like the current plans to rebuild I-64, the N.M. 44 proposal followed the basic tenets of the design-build model. Koch controlled the entire scope of project and completed construction within three years. The roadwork recently has come under additional attack as parts of the highway have begun to crack and buckle just a few years following construction.

"That road is 118 miles and crosses over mountains, basins and deserts with extremely unstable soils," defends Rahn. "The problem area is maybe three miles long. Given those difficulties, I'd say it was an extremely successful project."

As was the case in New Mexico, Rahn's critics in Missouri are now asking pointed questions about several MoDOT bids, including I-64. Last November Rahn raised eyebrows when he offered a handful of area leaders the opportunity to review the two competing bids for the project — but only on the condition that they sign a confidentiality agreement not to discuss the proposals outside the meeting. Mayor Slay and Les Sterman, of East-West Gateway, declined the invite.

"I was very uncomfortable about meeting and making a decision behind closed doors," Slay told the Post-Dispatch the next day. "I also don't think two hours was enough time to read all of the documents, fully understand, and make an informed decision." (Slay's office did not respond to numerous interview requests for this article.)

Sterman calls the confidential meeting one of the stranger requests he's seen in his 30 years of working on public transportation issues. "When you're spending $500 million in public money it should be as open a process as possible," says Sterman. "There was no reason for it to be a private meeting. The public didn't know anything about the project until after it was already signed and a done deal."

The East-West Gateway director raises additional concerns over the lack of competition involving design-build projects. "The problem with that model is that you're only going to have one or two bidders," states Sterman. "The projects are so large and cost so much to develop a proposal that any logical contractor wants at least a 50-50 chance of winning the bid."

The I-64 renovation brought just two bidders, with MoDOT awarding the losing contractor a stipend of $1 million for its work drafting a bid. Last week Missouri's only other design-build project — a plan to rebuild some 800 state bridges — was delayed after the two bidders for the work expressed concern over the performance bonds for the $600 million to $800 million project.

For his part, Rahn continues to champion the design-build formula and private-public partnerships. "My fingerprints are all over the I-64 project," says Rahn. "When I came into office the plan was to do this over thirteen years and in multiple pieces that would cost the state a lot of money. The simple fact is that design-build is the most economical way to take on a large, complex project like this."

In February Rahn raised suspicion among Missouri and Illinois officials when he produced an "unsolicited" offer from Texas-based Zachry American Infrastructure. The proposal detailed plans in which Zachry would construct a privately financed, $1 billion toll bridge to connect I-70 across the Mississippi River. Named in the plans was Zachry executive Bob Heitmann — the same man who worked for Koch Industries in the 1990s, when Rahn received the "unsolicited" offer to rebuild New Mexico's Highway 44.

"'Unsolicited' doesn't mean that it drops out of the clear blue sky," explains Rahn. "It simply means that we haven't made a formal request for proposals. But anyone who follows these issues knows were looking at alternatives. It's not uncommon at all then to receive unsolicited proposals."

The Zachry offer quickly set off a fight between Rahn and regional officials, who, prior to the unsolicited offer, were prepared to approve construction of a smaller coupler bridge adjacent to the Martin Luther King span. So heated was the debate that MoDOT reportedly refused Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) workers access to survey the Missouri side of the river.

By March the squabbling had reached Washington D.C., with U.S. Representative William Lacy Clay penning a letter to Governor Matt Blunt. "I urge you to work with the Missouri Highway Commission to direct MoDOT director Pete Rahn to work in a similar cooperative fashion with IDOT," Clay wrote the governor.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill also joined the fray, telling the Belleville News-Democrat that she'd been working behind the scenes to end the bickering. "There has been some stubbornness," said McCaskill. "And in fairness to Illinois, the stubbornness has been on the Missouri side of the line."

Rahn abruptly dropped the plans for the toll bridge in April when he presented a proposal that would have Illinois shouldering $500 million of a $569 million bridge to connect Interstate 70. "Our analysis was that the MLK coupler bridge would have paralyzed downtown traffic," defends Rahn. "Hopefully this new proposal will be a good compromise. No one has thrown any big stones at it yet."

As for the strife he's caused with the toll bridge proposal and I-64, Rahn remains unapologetic. "A lot of what we do can be controversial, but that doesn't mean we're wrong."

Back at the Sheraton hotel last month, Rahn tells tomorrow's transportation leaders to follow a similar path. "The problem — and allure — of this job is that there is never enough money to do every project you want," says Rahn. "Innovation can damage your career. But if you're not making mistakes, then you're not pushing boundaries."

At the conclusion of the morning Q&A Rahn will climb back in his Impala for the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Jefferson City. The trip jumps to three hours if Rahn stops along the highway — as he's apt to do — to thank MoDOT construction workers for the jobs they do.

"The secret to success," Rahn imparts, "is to get at least 30 percent of the people behind you. They'll turn the opinion of another 50 percent. The 20 percent left over will have to decide to either get on the bus or get out of the way."

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