On Friday, January 17, 2014, the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) opened bids for the Windsor Road I-57 Bridge Approaches Project. The project received four bids as follows:
- Halverson Construction Co. Inc., Springfield, IL $3,896,439.57
- O’Neil Brothers a Div. of MACC of IL, Inc., Urbana, IL $2,846,111.78
- Duce Construction Co., Champaign, IL $2,693,422.00
- Stark Excavating, Inc., Bloomington, IL $2,557,636.48 (low bid)
The Engineer’s Estimate for the project was $2,716,135. Stark Excavating is the apparent low bidder and is $158,498.52 or about 5.8% under the Engineer’s Estimate and $135,785.52 under the second lowest bidder. A portion of this project is being funded with a grant from the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program (ITEP) in the amount of $1,740,800. The remaining balance of $816,836.48 is being funded with City of Champaign Local Motor Fuel Tax funds.
The project is scheduled to begin on April 1, 2014, and be complete by October 15, 2014. Windsor Road between Briar Hill Drive and Fields South Drive will be closed to traffic during construction, though the construction specifications call for Windsor Road to reopen to all traffic by August 15, 2014. The project will improve the bridge approaches to match into the new bridge over I-57, which IDOT completed last fall. The approaches will be widened for on-street bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the road, in addition to getting new LED street lights.