COLUMBIA – MoDOT cancelled a construction bid opening planned for Friday, Feb. 26.
The department announced yesterday that the bid opening, which would have included 61 road and bridge projects, was cancelled for financial reasons.
The most recent muti-year federal highway bill, which passed in 2005, originally provided $42 billion each year to fund highway and bridge projects for states, cities and counties. It expired last September. Even though Congress renewed the act, the funding was cut to $30 billion. For Missouri, the shortfall put nearly $250 million worth of state and local transportation projects in jeopardy.
The director of MoDOT said that because there is currently no agreement between the Senate and the House to address the issue, MoDOT cannot proceed with the previous schedule for project bidding.
If Congress finds a way to remedy the funding by Feb. 28, MoDOT will combine projects scheduled for bid opening at the end of March and post them all together on March 1. If they don’t, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission will reevaluate all of the bid openings currently scheduled through May 21 of this year.
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