President Barack Obama on Monday listed Colorado as one of several states seeing bids for federal-stimulus transportation projects come in lower than expected.
He said Colorado was seeing bids come in up to 30 percent less than expected.
“And because these projects are proceeding so efficiently, we now have more recovery dollars to go around,” Obama said during a speech at the U.S. Department of Transportation. “And that means we can fund more projects, revitalize more of our infrastructure, put more people back to work and ensure that taxpayers get more value for their dollars.”
Stacey Stegman, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said the state has received bids on five of 60 projects expected to be financed through federal stimulus aid.
The five have come in, on average, about 12 percent lower than expected, with a resurfacing project for Belleview Avenue between South Federal Boulevard and U.S. 85 in Arapahoe County coming in at a cost of $407,000, about 30 percent lower than expected.
Stegman said bids typically come in lower at the start of the construction season because contractors still are gearing up for a full workload. She said the state has seen more contractors bidding on projects funded with stimulus funds than usually bid.
As many as six contractors are bidding on projects that normally attract just four proposals at this time of year.
“It’s good that the contractors are hungry, but we need to see if that continues before we proceed with funding additional projects beyond what was originally proposed,” Stegman said.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
