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Work on the new Interstate 35W bridge is
progressing so well that construction managers said Saturday they
expect to open it by mid-September instead of late December as
originally scheduled.

      Managers for Flatiron Constructors Corp. said during a weekly
public tour of the construction site Saturday that the bridge is 65
percent complete, and they could begin hanging concrete segments
over the Mississippi River as soon as May 14 or 15. That's three
months earlier than originally scheduled.

      Flatiron's reward for getting the job done early could be an
extra $20 million in federal funds, the Star Tribune reported.

      The company's $234 million contract with the state calls sets a
Dec. 24 completion date, but includes a $200,000-a-day incentive
for each day the bridge is finished before that, up to 100 days.

      Sept. 15 would be 100 days early, and "we fully intend to make
that," said Peter Sanderson, Flatiron's manager for the project.

      The contract would also pays the builders $7 million if they
make the Dec. 24 deadline without asking for additional money to
complete the work.

      The incentives would be paid with federal funds, said Kevin
Gutknecht, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of
Transportation, which has mainly an oversight role over the
project.

      MnDOT is more cautious about exactly when the bridge will be
completed.

      "We are certainly ahead of schedule, there's no question about
that, but there's still a lot of work to be done," Gutknecht said.
"MnDOT's not at a point where it's ready to say 'yeah, we're going
to get done way early."'

      Sanderson said Colorado-based Flatiron had been confident since
the beginning that they could build at this speed. He also said the
relative lack of snow this winter had helped.

      The total cost of the project, including removal of the old
bridge that collapsed Aug. 1, killing 13 people, is estimated at
nearly $400 million. The federal government is covering almost all
of that.

      Opening the new bridge early would be a welcome relief to
commuters and businesses affected by the collapse and the resulting
detours. State officials estimated last fall that the closure was
costing Minnesotans $400,000 a day in travel-related expenses
alone. The $200,000 daily incentive was arrived at by dividing that
number in half.

      Gutknecht said the $400,000 figure, which was based on drive
times and fuel costs at the time, is a minimum.

      "When we figured it out," he said, "fuel was quite a bit
cheaper."

Gallery

Work on the new Interstate 35W bridge is
progressing so well that construction managers said Saturday they
expect to open it by mid-September instead of late December as
originally scheduled.


New 35W bridge may open in Sept., three months early

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