It’s been a busy week of bidding for large projects in Marion County.
The Board of Supervisors and Marion County Recreational Railroad are considering a $510,000 bid to connect the railroad with Bluff Street Park, although that’s significantly over the $400,000 budget.
Also, the Columbia-Marion County Airport received a low bid of $1.37 million for rerouting Airport Road and removing 10 homes as part of the runway expansion. That was below the $1.4 million estimate.
The railroad project, which is to be funded by a variety of grant money, would replace a burned rail trestle near the Bluff Street Park with a pedestrian bridge. Passengers could walk across the bridge to board the train and ride to the Columbia Expo Center. The project could also lead the way to a potential walking path along the route.
But all of that hinges on acceptance of the bids, which were above the estimates and current amount of money available.
The bid opening on the project took place Friday with no electronic bids submitted and bids from three companies opened by County Engineer Jeff Dungan. Dungan, along with District 2 Supervisor Terry Broome and several MDOT officials and contractors, went over the bids to ensure they were in compliance with the standards.
“Our construction budget is $400,000, give or take,” Dungan said.
The low bid was from MGD Holdings, which came in at $510,405.50. Bids on the project were also T.L. Wallace Construction Inc,, $726,651.25 and Twin L. Construction, $762,026.54.
“The lowest bid leaves us $110,000 short,” Dungan said. “We may be able to ask Commissioner (Tom) King if he’s got any money available for the project.”
King is the Southern District transportation commissioner and has helped the railroad and county obtain the grant funding for the project.
“We have about 60 days to figure out what we’re going to do,” Dungan said. “I’ll be ready to bring it before the Marion County Board of Supervisors next month.”
The second bid opening was held Monday at the Columbia-Marion County Airport for everything except extension of the runway, Dungan said.
“That part will be next,” he said. “This is for removing and rerouting about 3,000 feet of Airport Road and the removal of 10 houses and structures.”
The lowest bid was from JWB Construction Inc. at $1,366,991.80. Walters Construction Company Inc. came in second with a bid of $1,392,710.44. “We were at about $1.4 million on our estimate,” Dungan said. “There is a lot to check on with these bids. We will inspect them and then meet with the airport board and go from there.”
Other bids included Beacon Supply Co. Inc at $1,421,599.65, SB Construction LLC at $1,511,625.11, Looks Great Services LLC at $1,682,525.54 and T.L. Wallace Construction at $1,750,080.50.
The project is 90 percent federally funded with a 5 percent match from the state and 5 percent from local sources.
Pictured Above: This old railroad trestle could be replaced with a pedestrian bridge to link Bluff Street Park and the recreational railroad. | Photo by Charlie Smith
