Bids for Center Junction project higher than anticipated

The Missouri Department of Transportation has received five bids for bridge replacement and interchange redesign at the junction of Interstate 55 and U.S. 61 between Cape Girardeau and Jackson, but all were higher than expected and it is unclear whether the Missouri Highway Commission will accept any of them.

MoDOT representatives will go over the bids with members of the Southeast Metropolitan Planning Organization (SEMPO) today. The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau and is open to the public.

Bids for the project at what is commonly referred to as Center Junction were opened by MoDOT late last week and included a low bid of $17,476,608.27 submitted by Penzel Construction Co. Inc. According to Cape Girardeau Mayor Bob Fox, who also serves as SEMPO chairman, that’s about $1 million more than MoDOT was anticipating.

“They were hoping for closer to $16 million,” Fox said.

Other bids for the project included $18,029,009 from Lehman Construction LLC of California, Missouri; $18,125,000 from KCI Construction Co. of St. Louis; $19,027,107 from Phillips Hardy Inc. of Boonville, Missouri; and $20,910,525 from Millstone Weber LLC of St. Charles, Missouri.

“We’re always hopeful bids will come in lower, but we had good competition and so that’s where they came in,” said Mark Shelton, district engineer for MoDOT’s Southeast District based in Sikeston.

The bids will be considered by the Missouri Highway Commission next month.

“We’ll go through and look at the bids and dig a little deeper into them, then a decision will be made on Jan. 9 at the next commission meeting,” Shelton said. “It’s at that time the bids will either be accepted or rejected.”

The highway commission rejected bids for an earlier version of the project last summer when they came in substantially higher than expected. MoDOT engineers spent several months redesigning the project in an effort to streamline the construction phases and lower the overall cost.

Shelton told the Missourian on Tuesday he “doesn’t want to speculate” next steps if the commission rejects the bids again.

The project is expected to take nearly two years to complete and will involve replacement of both northbound and southbound I-55 bridges over U.S. 61 at exit 99. It will also entail creation of a “diverging diamond” interchange along U.S. 61, but will require closure of the I-55 entrance and exit ramps on the north side of U.S. 61 for up to seven months in 2020.

If the highway commission awards a contract, work could begin as soon as late March or early April, weather permitting. The project’s target completion date is late 2021.

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