Firm that built 35W bridge to bid on St. Croix bridge
The firm that built the I-35W Bridge now plans to bid on the new St. Croix River Crossing .
Colorado-based Flatiron Construction, with a volume of more than $1 billion, is one of the biggest transportation construction and civil engineering firms in North America. The company led a team to design and build the new $234 million 35W bridge for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The bridge was completed and opened to traffic three months ahead of schedule.
A Flatiron spokesperson tells MPR News the company plans to bid for a contract to build the main span of the St. Croix bridge. Flatiron is only bidding on the construction portion of the project - the company generally teams with a designer on design-build projects. The St. Croix bridge will be built using a design-bid-build process, meaning the design will be complete before another request for proposals goes out for builders. When construction on the new bridge is complete, the existing Stillwater Lift Bridge will be converted to a pedestrian/bike trail.
MnDOT says the proposals will be judged using a quality-based process. Officials say cost is not part of the selection. That is negotiated after the design firm is selected. MnDOT officials say they expect to announce the firm they'll award the design contract to for the new bridge any day now.
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