Bids on road and bridge construction work totaling $242.5 million were opened Tuesday and included projects to improve interchanges on Interstate 430 at both Interstate 30 and at Cantrell Road in Little Rock.
Other significant projects for which bids were opened included the rehabilitation of a 28-mile section of Interstate 49 in Crawford and Washington counties and the widening of a 5-mile section of U.S. 167 in Union County.
The bids opened on all 35 projects won't be final until Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department officials review them for accuracy.
The Little Rock interchange projects have been long awaited.
Weaver-Bailey Contractors of El Paso in White County was the only bidder on the I-430/I-30 interchange project. It said it could do the work -- the second part of a two-phase project -- for $19.4 million.
The already-completed first phase added a service road to the growing shopping area anchored by Bass Pro Shops and The Outlets of Little Rock, which opens Friday.
The second phase will widen I-430 from Stagecoach Road to the interchange and widen the ramps connecting the two interstates.
The I-430/Cantrell Road project attracted two bidders, including Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. of Fort Worth. Its $21.7 million bid beat out the $26.8 million bid from Mobley Contractors Inc. of Morrilton.
The project calls for the construction of one interchange ramp from Cantrell, also called Arkansas 10, to I-430 north and to widen Cantrell in the vicinity of the interchange.
The I-49 project entails rehabilitating selected sections of I-49 for 28.39 miles in Washington and Crawford counties. Koss Construction Co. of Topeka, Kan., won the project with a bid of $22.1 million.
The U.S. 167 project in Union County will widen 5 miles of the highway from two lanes to five lanes between Arkansas 335 and the El Dorado city limits.
The $21.2 million bid by W.G. Yates and Sons Construction Co. of Philadelphia, Miss., beat out bids from four other companies, whose bids ranged from $21.8 million to $23.4 million.
Conway was home to two major projects for which bids were also opened Tuesday.
A $9.7 million bid by the Rogers Group Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., was the only one submitted on a project to construct two traffic circles, widen Dave Ward Drive for a half mile and relocate and widen the ramps of the Interstate 40 interchange at U.S. 65B.
The Rogers Group also was the low bidder to lay the pavement for the I-40/Arkansas 365 interchange and other work. Its $4.6 million bid beat out a $5.2 million bid from McGeorge Contracting Co. Inc. of Pine Bluff.
Metro on 10/14/2015