Work on Montana Department of Transportation’s Eastside Highway construction project south of Stevensville has come to halt. According to Amy Aiello of Big Sky Public Relations who has been working under contract for the company doing the road construction, a statement was issued last week saying that FirstMark Construction has “discontinued their business with the Montana Department of Transportation.”
Headquartered in Billings, Montana, the company has offices in Missoula and elsewhere. According to its website, the company is a privately-owned company with offices across the United States specializing in site developments, subdivisions, municipal work, asphalt and concrete construction, heavy civil developments, and structural pier foundations.
They also do street and road work for the public sector and claim on their website to be “a repeat successful low bidder for the City of Billings, Montana Department of Transportation, Billings Logan International Airport, and multiple county road departments in our work regions. Although this business line usually requires FirstMark to be the lowest responsive bid, public sector agencies actively seek out and invite FirstMark to bid on projects because of our reputation for partnering with the public sector to deliver on time and on budget projects to the taxpayer.”
Aiello said the timeline for any construction to resume on the Eastside Highway project is unknown, but she expects it to resume at a later date. In the meantime, she said, no pilot cars or traffic control will be utilized, adding that people should continue to drive cautiously around any construction materials or equipment near the project area between Stevensville and Corvallis. She said that a meeting had been scheduled with the bonding company involved.
“The meeting with the bonding company should be telling,” said Aiello.