A contract to make repairs to Lower Bottom Road in Cole County should be awarded next month, and the company to do the work will be Twehous Excavating.
At Tuesday's Cole County Commission meeting, public works officials went through bids for the project, which were presented earlier this month.
Ten construction firms submitted bids ranging from $250,000 to $355,000. Earlier estimates had the work costing between $400,000 to $500,000.
Twehous was the fourth lowest bidder on the project, coming in at $282,631.
Twehous' bid was accepted because the company submitted all the information required at the time of the bid submissions. That information included having an experienced project manager designated to the project, a list of similar projects to this one that the company has done in the past and a list of references.
The difference in cost is $32,000 since the lowest bidder was CL Richardson Construction out of Ashland, which submitted a bid of $250,177.
In July, the County Commission awarded a $48,700 contract to Gredell Engineering Resources Inc. to investigate the geotechnical elements below the approximately 200-by-250-square-foot area of the road that was affected. The contract included completing design for repairs, which will be finished by the county if feasible or contracted out if more substantial.
Gredell officials were concerned a non-qualified company could be awarded the contract, so they suggested having bidders submit a list of qualifications with their bids.
On July 6, the Public Works Department announced part of Lower Bottom Road was closed due to a road slide, affecting addresses from 11923 to 12217. The road runs off Route B near the Osage River.
Public works officials said the ground was super-saturated by heavy rains in June and cracks continued to get bigger.
In August, the county got word it would have the opportunity to receive federal disaster aid to help in recovery efforts following the severe storms.
The county met the minimum damage costs of $286,000 to qualify for aid.
FEMA funds could pay for 75 percent of that amount, and the county would have to pay the remaining 25 percent.
Once the bid award is given, work could start in February or March and the project would have to be completed by May 31.
Public works officials said they want to stabilize the road, which would mean using limestone. The best limestone is hard to find south of the Osage River, which means possibly trucking in the material if they can't find enough to work with in the area nearby the road.
Since the road was damaged, public works officials have stabilized the road to allow farm equipment to get through for harvesting, but the road is starting to get back to the shape it was back in the summer.