BURFORDVILLE COVERED BRIDGE BIDS PROMISING

JEFFERSON CITY -- After a bid came in Tuesday under budget, the historic covered bridge at the Bollinger State Historic Site at Burfordville will be repaired by next summer, officials said.

"This has been a tough project for a lot of reasons, and I bet there are a lot of people smiling today," said Brad Lucky, project manager for the Division of Design in Construction in Jefferson City.

Though a contract hasn't officially been awarded, repair work is expected to begin by the end of the summer, Lucky said. The contract allows a year for the repair work to be done, so Lucky expects the work to be done by late next summer, he said.

There were three bids from Missouri construction companies that were opened Tuesday, Lucky said. The low bidder -- and thus, the most likely to be awarded the contract -- was the St. Louis Bridge Construction Co. of Arnold, which bid $514,283 to structurally repair the 130-year-old bridge, Lucky said.

State funds allow just over $600,000 for the project.

Cannon General Contractors of Troy bid $649,000 and Prost Builders of Jefferson City bid $687,000, Lucky said. The official award should be made in about 30 days, Lucky said.

And while there have been instances where a company that bids under budget has not been awarded the contract and the work is not done, he said that it is unlikely in this case.

"I would guess that it won't happen with this one," Lucky said. "The bridge is too high priority for us for that to happen."

After many years of enduring wind, rain and flooding, the bridge has been in dire need of restoration for several years. Many of the timbers, especially trusses that actually support the weight of the bridge, have been damaged by rot and insect infestation.

Several of the wooden keys that help support the bridge are beginning to fail, which reduces the structure's ability to hold weight by one-fourth.

This is the second time bids on the Burfordville bridge have been taken. The last time none of the bids was under budget, bringing into question whether repairs would ever be done.

In 1993, $611,200 in state funds were allocated to the bridge restoration. That project involved a complete restoration of the structure. Two bids were received for that job, both of which were well over that amount, Lucky said.

So the scope of the project -- which initially had involved totally disassembling the bridge to reinforce and raise it three feet -- had to be narrowed.