In September, the Ohio Dept. of Transportation will award an estimated $450-million design-build contract to construct the I-90 Innerbelt Bridge in Cleveland. Three design-build teams will be waiting anxiously for the results to come in. For one team, it will be a major coup. The two other teams can console themselves with a sizable stipend for all their work drafting plans. Or maybe not.
The Innerbelt Bridge is one of the first major design-build projects undertaken by ODOT. The three short-listed teams are composed of high-profile firms. The Federal Highway Administration estimated the total design costs for the project would be in the $13.5 million to $27 million range and that the teams would spend about 35% of this cost developing technical proposals.