The U.S. Government Accountability Office has denied a protest by Watsonville, Calif.-based Granite Construction Co. challenging a $44-million U.S. Navy contract award to Baldi Brothers Inc., Beaumont, Calif., for runway repairs at Travis Air Force Base, near Fairfield, Calif. Granite had protested the Naval Facilities Engineering Command’s rating of its small-business subcontracting plan as "unacceptable." But in a Jan. 14 decision, GAO said Granite’s "arguments amount to mere disagreement with the agency’s conclusions."