Bids for Kandihohi County road projects are below estimates

WILLMAR - Bids awarded today for summer road projects in Kandiyohi County came in well below estimates.

Bituminous over-lay work on 11 different county and township roads had a total estimated cost of $2.7 million.

Duinincks Bros. Inc. of Prinsburg came in with the low bid of $2,534,678, which was nearly 6.5 percent under the estimate.

A project to replace a bridge on County Road 39 was nearly 37 percent below the $627,343 es-timate.

Mathiowetz Construction Company of Sleepy Eye was lowest of 11 bidders for that project with a bid of $395,609.

Even the cost of reflective paint was $7,095 below the $84,450 estimate.

The savings will allow the county to do more road work than initially planned.

It will also give the county a financial cushion if the state shaves away local government aid.

Given the low bids, the county could have done even more road projects if it wasn't facing the prospect of losing nearly $700,000 in LGA this year, said Kandiyohi County Public Works Direc-tor Gary Danielson.

Some of the savings will be used to off-set county reductions in state aid, he said.