County to award contract for railroad bridge project

A contract for a Henry County bridge project, which has been in the works since 2014, is expected to be awarded to the low bidder next week.

The bridge is located on Franklin Avenue over the BNSF railway. Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss said that the department began designing the bridge in 2014. Since then, they have been working with the railroad for approval to move forward on the project.

'We wanted to let it last year, so we're only one year behind,” Hotchkiss said during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Thursday, Dec. 27. 'Not too bad for working with the railroad. You run into snags when dealing with agreements with them.”

The Iowa DOT received two bids for the project. The low bidder, United Contractors Inc., had a bid of just shy of $1.7 million, which was 11 percent over the estimated cost of the project, Hotchkiss said. The other bid was $30,000 more than the United Contractors Inc. bid. The project is funded by bridge funds.

The contract for the project is expected to be awarded next Thursday, Jan. 3, during a Board of Supervisors meeting.

The Franklin Avenue railroad bridge project is the last railroad bridge that needs replacing, Hotchkiss said.

Last week, the Henry County Roads Department again took advantage of the warmer weather. Territory operators were out blading, hauling spot rock to various locations, working on signs, and the department sent out a crew to cut brush, sent out a boom mower and completed griding bumps.

In other news, officials re-elected in the Nov. 6 election were sworn into office.

County treasurer Ana Lair, county recorder Mindy Fitzgibbon and county supervisor Marc Lindeen were sworn in by Judge Wyatt Peterson.