MAIN STREET BIDS COME IN AT MORE THAN $4M

The city of Freeman learned this week that if it proceeds with a rebuild of Main Street, it will cost more than $4 million.

That’s based on four bids that were opened in City Hall Wednesday afternoon, March 16. Each of the companies submitted both a base bid for the roadway that runs from Fifth Street to the North County Road and one block of Railway, and an alternate bid that includes one block east and west on Third and Fourth streets.

The base bids ranged from $4.05 million to $4.52 million — all higher than the most recent base bid estimate of $3.15 million.

The alternate bids ranged from $691,992 to $829,507.

Among those attending the bid opening were Mayor Michael Walter; Council President Blaine Saarie; councilors Charles Gering and Charly Waltner; and Paul Korn, whose company, Sayre Associates, is engineering the project.

After the bids were opened city officials agreed to bring the rest of the council up to speed at its next meeting on March 22, but then holding a special meeting after that to discuss the bids, what financing could look like and how to proceed.

The base bids (and alternates) are listed from low to high:

Reede Construction Inc. of Aberdeen: $4,054,721.35 ($691,992.84)
Big Al’s Contracting, Inc. of Sioux Falls: $4,073,921.87 ($782,300.37)
bx civil & construction of Dell Rapids: $4,177,972.05 ($785,027.95)
Hulstein Excavating, Inc. of Edgerton, Minn: $4,524,664.73 ($829,507.64)
The bids were expected to come in higher than the estimate based on an ongoing increase in the cost of materials.

Korn said that, in December, bids were coming in 20% above estimates, and that trend has only continued as construction companies anticipate additional increases in materials, and the bids that were opened on Wednesday likely reflect that.

Should a bid be accepted by the Freeman City Council, that would be the fixed cost — barring any change orders — of the project regardless of what happens to the price of materials.