I-55 widening in Madison County draws three bids; T. L. Wallace low at $187.7 million with contractor-set time

The largest contract on the Mississippi Department of Transportation's October letting is the widening of I-55 in Madison County. Call 05 adds two lanes to I-55 from SR 463 to Gluckstadt Road and includes a mill and overlay of about 0.77 miles of I-55 north of Gluckstadt Road. It is federal-aid project STP-0055-02(271) and STP-0055-02(275).

MDOT's estimate memo for the October letting put the range for this call at "greater than $140,000,000." It was the only call in the letting estimated above $30 million.

The bids

Three firms bid, according to MDOT's checked bid results, which are marked unofficial:

• T. L. Wallace Construction, Columbia: $187,725,441.40 (A+C total $208,690,441.40)
• W. G. Yates & Sons Construction Company, Jackson: $193,158,658.00 (A+C total $211,323,658.00)
• Necaise Brothers Construction Co., Gulfport: $202,217,715.43 (A+C total $223,182,715.43)

The state estimate was $179,163,056.40, which puts the low bid 4.78% over. The gap between the low and second bids was about $5.4 million.

The timeline was short. MDOT began selling proposals and plans for the October letting on Oct. 5, read the bids on Oct. 27 and posted checked results on Oct. 29. The results remain unofficial until the contract is awarded. MDOT's addenda feed lists two addenda for this project, posted Oct. 8 and Oct. 21.

Time is part of the price

The notice lists the project completion as "Contractor Determined." The results show two figures for each bidder: the bid amount and an "A+C" total, which adds a cost component to the price. The A+C total is about $21 million above the bid amount for T. L. Wallace and Necaise Brothers and about $18.2 million above it for W. G. Yates & Sons, reflecting the time each firm proposed. MDOT ranked the bidders in the order above, and the order is the same on either measure.

What is in the job

MDOT's notice lists advance "information only" quantities, subject to change. Among them:

• Borrow excavation: 583,811 cubic yards; excess excavation: 498,248 cubic yards
• Asphalt pavement: about 154,000 tons across 9.5-, 12.5- and 19-millimeter mixes, including leveling courses
• Fine milling: 302,705 square yards
• Cast-in-place concrete median barrier (Type IV modified, 42 inches): 34,372 feet, and 84,948 feet of precast median barrier to remove and reset
• Soil-cement and soil-lime mixing: 118,950 square yards each
• Chain link fence: 40,947 feet, after removing 40,623 feet of existing fence
• Lighting: 38 high-mast LED assemblies, 12 low-mast and eight underpass assemblies
• Geotextile stabilization: 279,624 square yards; 8,000 tons of erosion-control riprap

The job also removes four box bridges and two high-mast lighting assemblies, and includes 30 acres of clearing and grubbing, 17 miles of ground-in rumble strips, 48,821 pounds of reinforcing steel, and jacked or bored concrete pipe crossings of 18, 24 and 36 inches.

The rest of the field

T. L. Wallace's other bid in this letting was on Call 03, the US 84 slide repair in Franklin County, where it finished fourth. W. G. Yates & Sons and Necaise Brothers bid only Call 05 in the October letting. Necaise Brothers has also bought a proposal for the November letting's Hinds County median barrier job, as has T. L. Wallace.

For subcontractors and suppliers

Quantities like these mean work for earthwork and hauling firms, aggregate, asphalt and concrete suppliers, fencing, lighting and electrical contractors, erosion control specialists and traffic control firms. On public work, Mississippi requires performance and payment bonds of not less than the contract amount, and a claimant unpaid 90 days after its last work may sue on the payment bond (Miss. Code § 31-5-51).

Madison County is in MDOT District 5, based in Newton. Our Madison County hub lists the county's licensed contractors, and the call is on the October results on our bids page.