Jay Bridge Rehab Contract Awarded

 

Elizabethtown, N.Y., Nov. 21, 2003 - The Jay Covered Bridge rehabilitation contract was awarded to Alpine Construction, of Stillwater, N.Y., with a bid of $652,184.

Competing bidders were 3-G Construction, Holderhill, NH at $894,900, and H. Schickel General Contracting, Malone at $944,706.

While the bids were opened early in October the Essex County Department of Public Works delayed awarding the contract because Alpine's bid was significantly lower than the next lowest bid. The Department checked the bid to be sure all job costs were accounted for. The Department's own estimate was in the neighborhood of the 3-G Construction bid. All bidders were checked as to whether they were qualified to do historic preservation and restoration work on covered bridges.

The rehabilitation work will replace the bridge floor, 80 percent of the lower support members, and half of the upper members. The bridge will be reopened to pedestrian and cycle traffic only.

Actual rehabilitation work on the bridge will begin in April, 2004, slated for completion by the end of the year. The restored covered bridge, currently on the river bank, will be returned to its place over the river after a planned new highway bridge is built 400 feet down-river from the covered bridge site. Bids for construction of the new bridge will be opened in July.

The 175-foot Jay Covered Bridge, WGN 32-16-01, was built in 1857 to cross the East Branch of the Ausable River using the Howe Truss. The New York State Department of Transportation began studying the bridge for safety in 1983, and in 1997 the bridge was removed as unsafe. A temporary one-lane steel bridge is currently carrying the old bridge's traffic.