A bridge replacement is planned in Springfield on Walnut Street just east of Kansas Expressway.
The proposed project allows for a future trail to be built beneath the bridge, which spans Jordan Creek.
This week, Springfield City Council voted unanimously for a special ordinance approving plans and specifications for replacing the bridge. That included accepting a bid of just over $3,234,200 from Hartman Construction for the project — about $500,000 less than what city engineers estimated the cost to be, according to Paula Brookshire, principal engineer with the city’s transportation engineering department.
"The project includes $550,640.80 of gas and water improvements that would be paid for by City Utilities," she said, "and the remainder would be funded 80% from the off-system bridge program and 20% from the 1/4-Cent Capital Improvement Sales Tax."
She said they received only one bid for the bridge replacement. According to Brookshire, they reached out to other plan holders to ask why they chose not to bid on the project and were told some were interested but were too busy with other projects. She said bridge construction is specialized, and there’s a smaller pool of contractors able to do the work.
