Pettis County Commission Opens Bids for Bridge Reconstruction
By Katherine Hamilton
UCM-Townsquare Sedalia Intern
The Pettis County Commission held a bid opening for three local bridges on June 16th.
Five bids were received for the Bennett Road Bridge, and six bids were received for the McCurdy Road Bridge and the McVey Road Bridge.
Action was taken on the bids on June 23rd, and a few Pettis County Commission Members were interviewed by KSIS later that day.
Three members of the Pettis County Commission gave additional insight into the bridge reconstruction projects happening around the area. This group of members included Pettis County Presiding Commissioner, Bill Taylor, Western Associate Commissioner, Mark Edwards, and Pettis County Eastern Commissioner, Israel Baeza.
“I've been impressed with the number of bridges that the county's been able to put in over the last several years,” Edwards said.
“We actually have 163 bridges in Pettis County,” Baeza said.
Baeza continued to mention how many bridge rebuilds are funded each year.
“I think a lot of people don't realize we try to do about three or four a year. Right now, we're probably down to two to three,” Baeza said.
Baeza also explained how some of the bridge funding works.
“One of them's paid through the BRO process, which is a federal grant that essentially pays for 100% of your bridge. There is some soft match credit there that we put in, but we have enough that it's paid for it all. And then the other two we're actually paying in-house, but we also have the ability to generate some soft match credit off of that,” Baeza said.
Bill Taylor brought up a few past bridge constructions and what pricing looked like for them.
“We built two bridges a year before last on our own, out of ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) money. One of them was a $900,000 bridge, one was an $800,000 bridge,” Taylor said, “So we got a million seven of soft match credit. That's our money. So when this Bennett bridge that we just approved is $750,000, we got to pay 20% of that.”
There are a lot of calculations that go into managing repairs and reconstructions for bridges in the county.
“It sounds very complicated, but it's really impressive how far the dollar can stretch. I don't think the general public realizes or understands how much work is being done on bridges and roads,” Edwards remarked.
The trio mentioned who won the bids for the three bridges.
“On the bids on Bennett, was Weddle Construction. And the two on the McVey & McCurdy box culvert was Cale Seymour construction down in Johnson County,”
Baeza pointed out how the bids were split up.
“We actually bid the first bridge, Bennett. Bid that one on its own, and then the other two, we bid them together to try to get a better deal with the contractor,” Baeza explained.
Edwards asked the other two members about how long it took from the time a bridge was identified to be coordinated.
“They were two years on Bennett. Two years ago. Bennett has been closed for how many years? Two. Two years. So people have had no access to get from I think Myers Road in that area down to 52. They had to go roundabout for two years to get out of their area. So most bridges will take about a year and a half to get built,” responded Taylor.
Construction on these bridges will begin shortly now that the bidding has been completed.
More From AM 1050 KSIS
