Contract awarded to fix I-55 stretch OSCEOLA ARK The Arkansas Highway Commission on Wednesday awarded a $55 million contract to rebuild an eight-mile section of Interstate 55 at Osceola, the latest in a program targeting worn-out segments of the interstate system in the state. In all, the commission awarded $109.5 million worth of contracts on 63 projects during its latest meeting in Little Rock. None of the awards are final until the winning bids are reviewed for accuracy. The I-55 job is the eighth such project for which the commission has awarded contracts under its interstate repair program that was restarted when voters approved a $575 million bond program in November 2011. Voters also had approved a similar program more than 10 years earlier. Under the latest program, state highway officials say they expect that 38 projects worth $1.2 billion covering 455 miles of interstate will be completed. The eight projects already awarded contracts total nearly $265 million. The first three projects were awarded contracts in November. They included a $78.8 million job to rebuild a section of Interstate 540 between Interstate 40 and Arkansas 22 in Crawford and Sebastian counties, $42.4 million worth of work on 7.2 miles of I-40 from Mill Creek to Arkansas 331 in Pope County and a $13.5 million project from Bingham Road to the Grant County line in Pulaski and Saline counties. Three more projects were awarded contracts in March: $12.3 million job to rehabilitate 18.5 miles of I-40 between Atkins and Plumerville in Pope and Conway counties, a $9.1 million project on 13.8 miles of I-40 at Mulberry between Dyer and Cravens Creek in Crawford and Franklin counties and a $7.7 million project on 7.7 miles of I-55 from I-40 to Jericho in Crittenden County. A seventh contract was awarded in April for a $52 million project on 7.8 miles of I-40 east from Forrest City. The low bidder on the latest project was Koss Construction Co. of Topeka, Kan. The only other bidder on the I-55 work was Delta Asphalt of Arkansas Inc. of Paragould, which said it could be done for $35 million. The work includes reconstruction of the main lanes, rebuilding two main-lane bridges and raising one overpass. The cost of the most expensive of the projects such as I-55 and I-540 depends on “how many bridges, if any, are involved in the contract work,” said Randy Ort, a department spokesman. “If we have to rehabilitate or replace a bridge, then the cost and time involved both go up.” Other projects can be relatively inexpensive if they had undergone rebuilding in the first interstate repair program. This time, the contract will call for milling 2 to 4 inches of asphalt off the top of the roadway surface then replacing it with new asphalt, Ort said. The “mill and inlay” is a “much quicker, simpler and less expensive project,” he said.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 16:35:58 +0000
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