WJRS NEWS has learned that the ongoing U.S. 127 realignment has hit a snag, of sorts, as a lone bid for bridge construction over the Cumberland River was recently rejected by the state.
The bid rejected was from Bizzack Construction, LLC and came in at $105 million, which was $15 million above Kentucky Transportation Cabinet estimates of $90 million.
State officials say it is common to see lone bids rejected in such a manner.
Chuck Wolfe, the executive director with the office of public affairs at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, told WJRS NEWS that the project will be bid again in the coming weeks and declined to comment further other than saying the cabinet understands the importance of the project to the region and the immediate communities and aims to get it underway as soon as possible.
Amber Hale, the information officer at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s District 8 office in Somerset, said the realignment section that is currently wrapping up begins at the end of the Jamestown Bypass and ends on the north bank of the Cumberland River.
However, that project did not include paving from the intersection of KY 55 to the river bank, simply because it dead-ends at the river and does not go any further, according to Hale.
Traffic was shifted on this section from the end of the bypass to KY 55 several months ago and that portion is now open to traffic. Section #2, which is the project that was just rejected by the state and is anticipated to take approximately four years to fully complete, will include the paving on section #1 from KY 55 to the river and will include U.S. 127 realignment from the end of section #1, extending just north of KY 3063 in Clinton County approximately four miles.
Stay tuned to WJRS NEWS for developments regarding the ongoing 127 realignment work.