DOT approves Radar Hill Road project

Jun 30, 2017

Bob Mercer, Rapid City Journal

PIERRE | The low bid came in very low Thursday for the proposed slide-repair project on Radar Hill Road east of Rapid City.

State government’s Transportation Commission accepted the offer from Foothills Contracting of Webster to do the work for $1,009,250. That was $548,309 below the state Department of Transportation estimate.

Commissioner Mike Vehle of Mitchell asked for assurance that DOT tracks the work by contractors that bid so low. “Because obviously that is substantial,” Vehle said.

“We keep an eye on them,” replied DOT official Kelly VanDeWiele. 

An hour earlier, the commission discussed an assortment of change orders on projects that had been awarded in past months. The commission Thursday approved low bids totaling slightly more than $7 million for six new projects including: 

• Traffic Services Company of Black Hawk offered $69,165 for pavement marking at various locations in the Pierre region. The DOT estimate was $73,981.

• Bituminous Paving of Ortonville, Minn., bid $2,870,212 for cold-milling and resurfacing 13.9 miles of U.S. Highway 385 in Pennington County from 1.5 miles north of U.S. Highway 16 east to four miles north of the S.D. Highway 44 junction. The DOT estimate was $2,547,932.

VanDeWiele said the bid was “justifiable for the work being completed.”