Kraemer & Sons low bidder for Hoan Bridge project (UPDATE)

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By Joe Yovino

One of Milwaukee’s landmark bridges is one step closer to getting a facelift.

Hoan Bridge Under Deck Netting, B-40-400, I-794, Pavement Marking and Under Deck Netting (No. 20)

Edward Kraemer & Sons Inc., Plain, submitted the low bid Tuesday for installation of netting under a portion of the Hoan Bridge over the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District‘s Jones Island treatment plant.

Kraemer & Sons’ bid of $1.8 million was nearly $800,000 less than the only other company to bid on the project, Zenith Tech Inc., Waukesha.

Small pieces of concrete began falling from the Hoan Bridge in June, according to a Wisconsin Department of Transportation official. The deterioration prompted a plan to hang netting over Jones Island.

The latest design to add netting to the underside of the bridge is in addition to netting already covering the Summerfest grounds that was built onto the structure in 1993. The new net will stretch from the southern end of the Jones Island treatment plant to the Milwaukee harbor inlet north of the plant, Paul Trombino, WisDOT division operations director, said last month.

WisDOT requested bids for the project June 22. Kraemer’s total bid came in at $1,823,648.50 on Tuesday.

A construction contract for deck repairs to the Hoan, which opened to traffic in 1977, will be let out for bid in September 2010 with work expected to begin by Oct. 1 and be completed in 2011, according to WisDOT. Those repairs are estimated to cost between $12 and $17 million.

Last week, state Rep. Christine Sinicki, D-Milwaukee, and state Sen. Jeff Plale, D-South Milwaukee, sent a letter to federal officials asking for money to stabilize safety issues on the Hoan Bridge.

The lawmakers have asked for $250 million to be diverted from the more than $800 million Wisconsin received to build high-speed rail between Milwaukee and Madison, Sinicki said.

— Joe Yovino