Levee bids are opened

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The St. John's Bayou-New Madrid Floodway Project's gap closure moved a step closer to reality with the opening of bids and selection of an apparent low bidder.

Larry Sharpe, lead project manager for the St. John's Bayou-New Madrid Floodway Project, said bids were opened Thursday on "item 2" of the project which includes building a levee to tie the setback and frontline levees and close the 1,500 foot gap at the New Madrid Floodway.

The bid includes a gravity outlet structure similar to the one at the lower end of the St. John's Bayou, Sharpe said. "It also includes a 1,500 cubic foot per second pumping station at the closure."

Sharpe said five bids were received by the Corps for this part of the project. "There's not very many contractors that do pumping stations this size and the levee work too, so we feel like this is a pretty good number," he said.

The apparent low bid of $25.4 million was submitted by Hill Brothers Construction of Falkner, Miss. The second highest bid came in at $29.1 million and the highest was $34.3 million.

"We will have to check some background work on the apparent low bidder, verify they are bonded," Sharpe said. "We expect to award the bid in September."

"I understand (Hill Brothers Construction) do work with Huffman out of Poplar Bluff quite often and they did the pumping station at Drinkwater two or three years ago, northeast of Charleston for us," Sharpe said. He added Hill Brothers Construction is also currently doing another project "in close coordination" with the Corps.

Item 1 for the project consisted of a 4.5 mile channel clean out in 1997, Sharpe said. The next item to be bid for the project will be a channel clean out for the lower three miles of the St. John's Bayou. "We expect to award that later this year," Sharpe said.

Over the next four to five years, a total of 27.6 miles of channel work for the St. James and New Madrid setback levee drainage systems is slated as well as the construction of another 1,000 cubic feet per second pumping station for the St. John's Basin near the existing gravity outlet for the St. John's Bayou, according to Sharpe.