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By Kevin Flynn
Inside-Lane.com

The low bidder on the first bridge replacement project funded by the FASTER bill’s increase in vehicle registration fees was the one closest to the job.

Walsenburg Sand and Gravel Co. bid $1,837,111 to replace the bridge over Turkey Creek on CO 69 near Farisita. The project includes realignment of a half mile of the highway at the bridge. Walsenburg and Farisita are both in Huerfano County.

The Colorado Department of Transportation received seven bids for this first FASTER project. The other bidders were scattered between Longmont and Pueblo and as Far East as Swink. They were Zak Dirt Inc. of Longmont, Colorado Constructors Inc. of Denver, TLM Constructors of Swink, Tricon 2 of Castle Rock, Bassett Construction of Pueblo and SEMA Construction of Centennial.

All of the bids were over the engineer’s estimate of $1,750,941, with Walsenburg’s five percent higher. They ranged as high as $2,328,620.

The 1932 steel low-truss bridge on CO 69 over Turkey Creek in Huerfano County will be the first on replaced under the FASTER program. A Walsenburg company was the low bidder. CDOT photo.

The Turkey Creek bridge was built in 1932 and was rehabilitated 45 years ago. CO 96 is an original state highway from the 1920s. You can read the history of CO 96 at Matt Salek’s Highways of Colorado site. The Turkey Creek bridge is a steel low-truss two-lane structure 62 feet in length. It is rated 26.9 on a scale of 100 for structural deficiency and it is one of the 124 bridges on CDOT’s list of poor-rated structures that FASTER was set up to replace.

Under the FASTER program, vehicle owners pay an extra “bridge safety fee” and a “road safety fee” (click here for the fee schedule) earmarked toward repairing unsafe bridges and roads across the state. The bridge fee is phased in over three years, with the average passenger vehicle costing $9 this fiscal year and rising to $18 by 2011-2012. The road safety fee is $23 for the average passenger vehicle, for an eventual total of $41 per year. Lighter and heavier vehicles vary.

The Colorado Transportation Commission last summer selected up to 17 candidate bridges for replacement with the first year’s FASTER revenue, but the fees haven’t met projections so far and it is uncertain how many can be put under contract this first year.

CDOT will soon be accepting bids for three more FASTER bridge replacement projects – U.S. 24 over Twin Creek in Teller County, U.S. 24 eastbound over Fountain Creek in El Paso County and CO 67 over a draw north of Woodland Park in Teller County. That last bridge is made of wood and was built in 1939.