County opens bids for mainline road work tied to Community Crossings funding

St. Joseph County commissioners on April 22 opened two bids for this year’s mainline road packages, which are paired with $1,500,000 in Community Crossings funding, and voted to forward the bids to county engineering for review.

Skye Matters, of the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Growth, read the bids aloud and recommended the board accept and refer them to engineering. "The first bid ... from Reath Riley Construction Company ... is $3,281,650.80," Matters said, and the second from Milestone Contractors was listed at $3,547,000. Matters asked the board to "accept these bids, and turn them over to engineering for review and recommendation."

The board approved a motion to accept the bids and send them to engineering. Commissioners recorded their votes as follows: Commissioner Morton — aye; Commissioner Hazen — aye; Commissioner Maxeyer — aye. The motion carried with a voice vote.

The bid-opening was the formal first step in the procurement process; commissioners did not award the contract. The engineering office will review the bid documents, check bidder qualifications and compliance, and make a recommendation back to the board before any contract is awarded. No timeline for the engineering review or a staff recommendation was provided at the meeting.

The mainline packages are the county’s annual road work bundle that will be matched with the stated Community Crossings allocation; no additional project details, award criteria, or estimated construction start dates were given during the bid opening.

The board moved on after documenting the bids and the vote; no member raised objections or requested further information at the meeting.