The West Virginia Department of Transportation is reviewing five bids opened this week for the Ohio River Corridor D bridge project, which is expected to begin construction within a couple of months.
The apparent low bidder on the project is Walsh Construction Co. of Chicago, Ill., with a bid of $119,980,000, said WVDOT public affairs officer Carol Melling bids. Bids were opened Wednesday.
The other bidders were Traylor Brothers, Inc., $130,841,728.27; American Bridge Co./Kokosing Construction Co. Inc., $136,008,732.32; Brayman Construction Corp., $143, 321, 709.02; and Trumbull Corp., $152,963587.36
Melling said the bids are under review. An award conference will be held March 18th, but she doesn't expect the contract to be awarded at that meeting. Two states, West Virginia and Ohio, and other entities invlolved in the funding of the project and that will take some time to work out, she said.
Once the contract is awarded, the winning company will be expected to begin construction within a month of receiving the contract, Melling said. The contracted could be awarded within a month or two.
"We will begin seeing some activity this spring and because it's such a big project, they're allowing two and a half years to complete it.," she said.
Local and state officials have said the project is the biggest contract the West Virginia Department of Transportationo has ever awarded. The bridge will take travelers over Blennerhassett Island into Ohio and will serve as the last section of the Corridor D project.
According to DOT officials, the Corridor D crossing of the Ohio River will be the longest bridge in the state, 4,009 feet, and will also be the longest single tied-arch bridge in the United States.
Passing over the western end of the island and crossing both main navigational and secondary channel of the Ohio River on concrete piers about 69 feet above the river, the weathering steel bridge will provide four travel lanes with shoulders wide enough to serve traffic during emergencies or future maintenance work, according to WVDOT officials.
The bridge contract calls for more that 14,705 tons of structural steel. A continuous girder bridge of eight spans ranging from 200 to 400 feet comprising the 2,629-foot approach from the West Virginia 892 interchange will use 16.3 million pounds of plate girder steel, with nearly 1.6 million pounds in the continuous girder bridge of three spans ranging from 140 to 179 feet comprising the 494-foot approach from Ohio 618.
Posted with permission from The Parkersburg News & Sentinel
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