Lunda Construction has a big day

Daily Reporter (Milwaukee), Sep 10, 2003 by Chris Thompson

If Tuesday's bid letting holds true, Lunda Construction Co. will net $10.9 million in Wisconsin Department of Transportation road contracts.

The Black River Falls contractor topped its list of apparent victories with a $6.7 million bid to construct the Middleton bypass structures, which are part of a U.S. Highway 12 widening project from Sauk City to Middleton. That project was the largest in WisDOT's September bid letting, and it should reach completion by Oct. 1, 2005.

Lunda edged out Zenith Tech Inc., Waukesha, for the Middleton work. Zenith came in about $400,000 over with a bid of $7.1 million.

Lunda followed up the Middleton project with the apparent low bid of $3.3 million for bridge work on U.S. Highway 10 in Portage County, a $680,302 bid for work on the Pecatonica Bridge in Grant County and a $271,779 bid for road work in Jackson County.

While Lunda apparently captured the month's largest bid, Northwind Concrete, South Beloit, Ill., caught WisDOT's attention with its apparent low bid of $1.2 million for road work on East Washington Avenue in Madison. Northwind beat out Madison Concrete Pipe Inc., Madison, by about $120,000 for that job.

This is prep work for the East Washington project, said Paul Trombino, WisDOT's chief proposal management engineer. It's construction of a huge box culvert. We were pretty curious about that one.

More road work

Other large projects passing through Tuesday's bid letting included Stevens Point and Mosinee Interstate 39 road work, which James Cape & Sons Co., Racine, apparently won with a $6.1 million bid, and St. Croix County Interstate 94 and U.S. Highway 63 interchange work, which Hoffman Construction Co., Black River Falls, apparently won with a $5.9 million bid.

Two of the tighter bids of the month included both a large and small project. B.R. Amon & Sons Inc., Elkhorn, beat out Northeast Asphalt Inc., Greenville, by $67,000 for a $3 million road work project covering about 16 miles of U.S. Highway 151 in Sherwood.

Highway Landscapers Inc., Kaukauna, edged out Capitol Pavers Inc., New Berlin, by about $1,700 with a $38,000 bid for clearing and grubbing work on County Highway J in Waukesha County.

WisDOT should finalize Tuesday's bids by Friday.