City Council approved a $4.489 million bid to re-do 20th South Street from Broadway to the Minnesota River Bridge this summer. This includes replacing the water main and making storm sewer modifications.

NEW ULM — New Ulm City Council approved a bid from GM Contracting for $4.489 million to completely re-do a portion of 20th South Street.

Two bids were received and opened regarding this project. The bid from GM Contracting came in at 3.3% under what City Engineers had estimated the project would cost. The second bid, which came in from MR Paving and Excavating totaled $4.729 million and was around 5% higher than the original estimate.

As the project is being supported by state and federal funding, Stadheim said there were some extra steps to complete before they brought the bid forward. He said the MnDOT Office of Civil Rights had to review the bid before it could be authorized, and it successfully received their authorization.

Stadheim said there will be a bonding need of $1.36 million to fund the outstanding cost of the project. The full cost of $4.489 million comes as a complete top-to-bottom overhaul of the road and pipes underneath is required.

“It’ll be complete utility and roadway reconstruction of 20 South Street from Broadway to the Minnesota River Bridge,” he said. “It will be replacing sanitary sewer water main, storm sewer modifications, and roadway reconstruction as well.”

Stadheim said due to the state of the road and infrastructure underneath, it was clear the project needed to happen now. He said the project is estimated to take 4-5 months to complete and will start in late April or early May.

Stadheim said this is the third Federal Aid project for road work in as many years. Given the urgency of this project, he said he is thankful everything came together to get it started.

“We apply for the funds and if we’re lucky enough to get them, we can use them for these bigger projects,” he said. “With this project, the roadway pavement failed and the utilities need to be reconstructed too. It was one of those [where] it was going to be done regardless if it was federal aid or just a local project in the future as well.”

Councilman Dave Christian made the motion to approve the selection of GM Contracting’s bid, with Councilman Larry Mack seconding the motion. Mack said he was thankful they received two competitive bids for this project.

“I’m happy to see at least we got a couple of quotes,” Mack said. “Sometimes we only get one bid.”