Staff photo by Fritz Busch Brown County Commissioners will view bid results for the CSAH 8 bridge replacement project Tuesday, June 21. Bids came in at least 10% over the engineer’s estimate of $3.5 million.

NEW ULM — Brown County commissioners will learn about bid results for the CSAH 8 bridge replacement project Tuesday, June 21.

The project engineer’s estimate for a new bridge over the Minnesota River is $3,580,822. All submitted bids exceeded that: Minnowa Construction ($3,969,000), Redwood Construction ($4,498,000), Lunda Construction ($4,758,800), S.M. Hentges & Son ($4,785,700) and Robert R. Schroeder Construction ($5,013,700).

Brown County Highway Engineer Wayne Stevens said the low bid is 10% higher than the estimate and he wrote a higher bid justification letter to the state engineer.

“We’ll see what happens. We are waiting for approval of the low bidders application from the state,” Stevens said.

When approval is received, the Highway Department will bring the low bid to the County Board for consideration.

Bridge 2110, sometimes referred to the Peterson or Hale Bridge, several miles west of TH 4 is the last truss bridge owned by Brown County. It is structurally deficient with a low sufficiency rating and a number of serious structural issues.

The bridge was closed in August 2017 after a critical deficiency was found. It reopened in the fall of 2020 after repairs. The 17-foot-wide, 250-foot-long, six-span bridge has been load posted at 5 tons for several years.

The bridge placement project and approach work on the Brown County side of the river is funded with federal, bridge bond and state aid funds. Approach work on the Renville County side is funded with state aid money.

Work is scheduled to begin on or before Sept. 26 and is expected take up to 175 days to complete.

At a Brown County Board public hearing several years ago, Franklin firefighters said they and the Franklin Ambulance needed the bridge replaced to improve response times.

In addition, Franklin firefighter Joel Harmoning said a new bridge could be used to drive modern implements on back roads instead of using TH 4, which he said is challenging due to guard rails.

Washington County plans to move the CSAH 8 bridge to the Lake Elmo Park Reserve to replace an existing bridge used for pedestrian and bicycle travel on a loop trail.

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the courthouse commissioner’s room.

(Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.)