Maryland's State Highway Administration has decided to stretch
out its schedule by several months for bidding the last of
its three planned contracts for the superstructure of the
new Woodrow Wilson bridge across the Potomac River.
Pedestals
for foundation of new outer loop bridge's drawspan.
Existing bridge is in background. (Maryland State Highway
Administration)
The
timetable for the first contract, covering the bascule portions
of each of the project's two parallel, six-lane spans, isn't
affected. That contract was advertised on July 2; bid opening
remains set for Nov. 7.
In June, State Highway Administrator
Parker Williams said the agency would advertise the other
two contracts in October, with bid openings in mid-February,
2003. But at a July 31 pre-bid meeting, contractors were told
the state now would advertise in October only the segment
stretching from the Virginia side of the river to the draw
spans, says Valerie Burnette Edgar, a spokeswoman for SHA.
The Virginia portion is mostly over land. Bid opening still
would be in February, Edgar says.
But the agency now says it will
defer advertising the largely over-water portion from the
Maryland shore until January 2003, Edgar says. Bids would
be due in May.
That change could mean about a
three-month delay for the third contract, but Edgar says contractors
"very well maybe able to make that [time] up later" as work
proceeds.
With the shift in bid timing,
state highway officials are seeking to "make it as easy as
possible for competitive bidding," she says.
Maryland originally advertised
the superstructure as a single contract, but its officials
were shocked when the only bid they received totaled nearly
$860 million, or more than 70% above the high end of their
$450-500 million estimated range. SHA rejected the lone bid--from
a team of Kiewit Construction Co., Tidewater Construction
Corp., and Clark Construction Group Inc.—and then split
the job into three contracts, hoping for more bidders and
better prices.
State officials originally said
the first bridge would open in late 2004 or early 2005. But
mostly because of last December's bid result, "Now we're saying
late 2005...spring 2006 at the latest," says Edgar.
The project's official cost estimate
is $2.4 billion, which includes the new bridge as well as
major improvements to four Capital Beltway interchanges, two
each in Maryland and Virginia.
