Photo courtesy of Brown County Highway Dept. Brown County commissioners unanimously awarded a $137,215 contract Tuesday to replace a washed out six foot corrugated metal pipe (pictured above in a drone photo) with a ten by seven foot precast concrete box culvert over an unnamed stream in Stately Township.

BROWN COUNTY — Brown County commissioners unanimously approved awarding a $137,215 low bid contract Tuesday to replace a six foot corrugated metal pipe with a ten by seven foot precast concrete box culvert in Stately Township.

Action came on a motion by Commissioner Brian Braun, seconded by Tony Berg for Selly Excavating, Inc. to replace the washed out corrugated metal pipe over an unnamed stream on or before Aug. 19. The job site about 6 1/2 miles northwest of Comfrey, is scheduled to be done in 20 working days or less.

The low bid was 19.7% under the $170,905.50 engineer’s estimate. Other bids were $140,461.25 from Mathiowetz Construction Co.. Veenstra and Son $181,310 and Midwest Contracting, LLC $187,087.

Brown County Highway Engineer Wayne Stevens said the box culvert is large enough to be labeled a bridge so it is eligible for state aid town bridge funds and $10,000 in Stately Township funds.

“The concrete box culvert will be more sturdy and last much longer, 75 to 100 years,” Stevens said.

Commissioners also unanimously awarded a $7,758 County Ditch 68 timber bridge repair contract to Everstrong Construction, motion by Commissioner Berg, seconded by Scott Windschitl. The ditch is located in Sigel and Lake Hanska Townships.

The timber bridge driveway crossing developed a large crack on one of the center beams. The ditch inspector requested a repair plan by a structural engineering consultant. The repair plan created by Erickson Engineering, will consist of sandwiching the cracked beam with wooden planks lagged together at specific spacing and reinstalling the timber diaphragm and steel support rod.