Lunda wins $62M bridge repair project in Minnesota (UPDATE)

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has awarded Black River Falls-based Lunda Construction Co. a $62 million contract to repair a bridge along a segment of Interstate 494 in Bloomington, Minnesota.

The bridge, according to MnDOT, is in need of major repairs. Work includes pavement repair, reconstruction of a regional trail, replacement of bridge joints, repairs to the bridge deck and railings, reconstruction of bearings, replacement of highway lighting and drainage repair.

Lunda expects to complete the project in summer 2026.

Lunda’s bridge work is part of more than 200 projects announced by MnDOT last week for the upcoming summer season.

The program touches 171 road and bridge projects and 52 improvements related to airports, water ports, railroad crossings and transit infrastructure, MnDOT said.

Jake Loesch, a MnDOT spokesman, said the 2023 work has a combined value of $1.3 billion. The numbers are similar to recent years, despite passage of a $1.2 trillion federal transportation package that funnels hundreds of millions of infrastructure dollars to Minnesota.

Congress approved the federal appropriation more than a year ago. But MnDOT said the upcoming state program is “largely unchanged” because the state Legislature waited until this year to authorize the department to spend the additional federal money.

The Daily Reporter sister publication Finance & Commerce reported in January that the Minnesota House unanimously approved House File 26, which gave MnDOT the green light to spend $315 million in federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act money.

MnDOT said last week that it expects state construction programs to grow in 2024 and beyond with the additional federal funds.

Despite the minimal impact in 2023, MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger describes the upcoming construction lineup as “robust.”

“Warmer weather … means drivers can expect to see more orange cones and work zones around the state, as well as more people working on and around highway projects,” Daubenberger said in a news release.

Matt Zeller, executive director of the Concrete Paving Association of Minnesota, said MnDOT has been able to take advantage some Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act money by “borrowing money from themselves” to free up matching funds.

“They did some shuffling,” Zeller said.

Construction inflation is a more general concern. As costs escalate, transportation advocates are worried that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act money could be “eaten up really fast by inflation. The hope was it was going to new work,” Zeller said.

Margaret Donahoe, executive director of the Transportation Alliance of Minnesota, said MnDOT has had to “move some projects around” to meet federal matching requirements.

“Now they are going to have to compensate for that. We need a strong funding bill that includes more matching money for the federal dollars,” Donahoe said.

Despite the limited impact of federal spending in 2023, people in the concrete paving business are going to be “very busy this year” with big projects moving forward on Interstate 94, I-90 and I-494 in the metro area and beyond, Zeller said.

But the outlook is far less sanguine for asphalt pavers.

Abbey Bryduck, executive director of the Minnesota Asphalt Pavement Association, said in an email that the bituminous program at MNDOT is “significantly down this year and scheduled to be worse in 2024.”

“Generally speaking, the projects are smaller in scope than usual,” Bryduck added. “Contractors in the metro have reported that this is worse than they’ve ever seen. There have been similar comments outstate. The federal money has yet to hit the streets. Without any new revenue at the state level, all our revenue streams are projected to continue to go down.”

Continuing this year is work on Highway 10 in Anoka, the $435 million Twin Ports Interchange project in Duluth, Highway 169 in Elk River, and Highway 14 between New Ulm and Nicollet, among other multiyear projects.

MnDOT said the project to expand Highway 14 from two lanes to four lanes is entering its final year. Just beginning this year is a two-year Corridors of Commerce project to expand Highway 23 from New London to Paynesville to four lanes.

Among the notable metro area projects starting this season is an I-94 makeover in the east metro. Finance & Commerce reported in February that Shafer Contracting submitted the apparent low bid of $102.54 million for the project.

Workers will resurface I-94 from Highway 120 in Oakdale to the St Croix River in Lakeland and construct an eastbound auxiliary lane on I-94 from the I-94/I-494/I-694 interchange in Oakdale to Highway 19 in Woodbury.

Zeller told Finance & Commerce in February that the I-94 job is “probably the largest single concrete paving job that MnDOT has ever done” based on estimated quantities of concrete required.

Additional new projects include resurfacing and other improvements on Highways 5 and 36 in Maplewood ($10.9 million in 2023 spending), Interstate 35W Bloomington ($12.78 million), Highway 52 between Hampton Township and Rosemount ($56.9 million), and Highway 212 in Benton Township, Cologne and Dahlgren Township.

Finance & Commerce’s Brian Johnson also contributed to this report.