Transportation commission awards $29 million in highway contracts

Contracts totaling $29.4 million for three highway projects around the state were awarded by the Wyoming Transportation Commission during its June meeting in Cheyenne.

Foothills Contracting of Webster, S.D., won the largest contract with the low bid of $20 million for resurfacing and widening eight miles of US 16 from about a mile east of Newcastle to the South Dakota border. Three miles of the highway will be reconstructed, and three bridges will be rehabilitated. Safety shoulders on the entire section will be widened to eight feet and a center turn lane will be extended for about 1.5 miles between the Dixon Brothers Inc. and Powder River Energy Corp. facilities.

Work will begin in October, but no disruption of traffic is expected until next spring. Work will be suspended for two weeks during August to facilitate heavy traffic during the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D. The final contract completion date is Oct. 31, 2015.

Casper’s McMurry Ready-Mix Co. was the low bidder at $7 million for a project to mill off deteriorating pavement and replace it with a new layer of pavement on nine miles of I-90 immediately west of the West Sundance Interchange. The section last saw rehabilitation work 18 years ago and the pavement is suffering from cracks, rutting and other problems. The work is scheduled to be done by Oct. 31, 2014.

Headquist Construction of Mills won a $2.4 million contract to reconstruct the intersection of WYO 258 (Wyoming Boulevard) and WYO 251 (Casper Mountain Road) in Casper. The work won’t begin until next year, and the contract completion date is Oct. 31, 2014.