SIX CONTRACTORS BID ON NEW BRIDGE; STATE COMMISSION WILL REVIEW BIDS NEXT WEEK

Flat Iron Structures Co., of Longmont, Colo., is the apparent low bidder on the main structure of the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge, to be constructed across the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, according to Missouri highways officials.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Department received six bids on the new bridge Friday.

"No amounts will be released until the bids are presented to the Missouri Highways Commission Wednesday," said Larry Rohr, district highway design engineer with the department's Sikeston office. "We'll spend the next few days reviewing the bids and checking on all the paper work."

Rohr said four of the bids were comparable. The project will not be awarded until after all of the bids have been thoroughly reviewed.

Two Missouri companies -- McCarthy Brothers Construction Co./PCL of St. Louis and Massman-Johnson Construction of Kansas City -- were among the bidders.

Others submitting bids were Flat Iron Structures; Recchi America Inc. of Miami, Fla.; Balfour Beatty Construction of Atlanta, Ga.; and Taylor Brothers Construction of Evansville, Ind.

The bids were opened in Jefferson City. The contractors, who are bidding to become primary contractors for the bridge, attended a pre-bid meeting at Cape Girardeau earlier in June.

The span will replace the two-lane bridge that was built in 1924.

The bridge project will consist of construction of the cable-stayed main span -- the substructure, superstructure and deck.

The four-lane bridge, which will be just south of the existing span, is expected to cost $50 million to $60 million. Eighty percent of the funding is being provided by the federal government.

Transportation officials from Missouri and Illinois have already reached an agreement on the remaining funds, and the first phase of construction is expected to get under way this fall.

The first step in construction will be to sink pilings in the river.

Meanwhile, Illinois will have a bid-letting in August for bridge approach grading work on Route 146 east of the bridge.

Illinois will spend about $4 million to construct 1.1 miles of four-lane pavement from the east abutment of the bridge to North Bader Lane in East Cape Girardeau.

The first section of the total project in Missouri, a four-lane highway between Sprigg and Kingshighway, was opened in mid-February.

This fall the second part of the I-55 interchange, which includes completing Highway 74 from Kingshighway to the interstate should begin. It is scheduled to be completed next spring.

Missouri and Illinois have committed more than $6.5 million to construction of the bridge.