County’s Valentine Ford bridge project draws bidder interest

Low bidder well below estimated cost to build

By Buck Collier, Special Correspondent
Posted 10/13/21

HERMANN — Gasconade County administrators were taken aback Thursday by the interest shown in a bridge project on Valentine Ford Road in the Mt. Sterling area. Nine contractors submitted bids to …

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County’s Valentine Ford bridge project draws bidder interest

Low bidder well below estimated cost to build

Posted

HERMANN — Gasconade County administrators were taken aback Thursday by the interest shown in a bridge project on Valentine Ford Road in the Mt. Sterling area. Nine contractors submitted bids to replace the crossing over Third Creek.

“I was surprised,” said Southern District Associate Commissioner Jerry Lairmore, R-Owensville. “I’m very happy to get that many bids.”

Just as surprising was the size of the gap between the apparent low bidder and the highest bid opened at the County Commission’s first-Thursday-of-the-month session at Owensville City Hall. Magruder Construction, Eolia, Mo., submitted a bid of $616,452 — the apparent low bidder — while C&C Bridge and Concrete Inc. offered to do the job at a cost of $1,279,168.

Rob Conaway of Archer-Elgin, the county’s consulting engineering firm, said after the details of Magruder’s bid are reviewed by the Missouri Department of Transportation, which is helping fund the 110-foot bridge, a contract could be issued within a month. However, Conaway told the Commission he doesn’t expect the project to begin any time soon,

“I would expect it would be late next spring,” he said, pointing out that because of the coronavirus, the supply chain for materials is still gearing up. “There’s such a delay in getting things now,” he said.

Here are the bids that were received for the project:

• BuildTec Construction, LLC, $771,217; 

• C&C Bridge and Concrete, Inc., $1,179,168;

• Cale Seymour Construction, LLC, $749,283;

• Gene Halile Excavating, Inc., $637,120;

• Kozeny-Wagner, $832,285;

• Magruder Construction, 4616,452; 

• Mera Excavating, $628,834;

• S&A Equipment and Builders, $799,482;

• Don Schnieders Excavating, Inc. $763,763.

In other matters at last week’s session, Lairmore noted that yet another date has been set for a cleanup of illegal dumping on Roethemeyer Road. This year the project is set for Nov. 4. “That’s been scheduled for the past two years,” Lairmore said, explaining the effort was scrapped each year because of the coronavirus.

Commissioners signed the necessary documents allowing the Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) to proceed with applying for a grant to help fund an upgrade to the wastewater treatment facility of Public Water Supply District 1, which serves the Peaceful Valley subdivision.

Kelly Sink of  MRPC attended the session and told the Commission that applying for the Community Development Bloc Grant of $750,000 is “kind of the last piece of the puzzle” to moving forward with the upgrade, which is designed to meet current regulations for wastewater by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The upgrade carries a total price tag of about $2.7 million, Sink said. The water district has obtained a loan to help cover the cost of the improvements, she said.

Randy Fuller, representing PWSD 1, told the Commission that repairs have been made to parts of the system, which has lines that are 60 years old. Fuller said it’s projected that the upgrade will begin in late 2022 and be completed sometime in 2023.

The United States Department of Agriculture has funded the engineering work done thus far on the project, which has been in the works for a long time.

“It’s been a long, hard road,” said Northern District Associate Commissioner Jim Holland, R-Hermann.