Bids on Trails From Freeport project come in half a million dollars higher than projected

The Iowa Department of Transportation opened bids Tuesday on the project to extend the Trout Run Trail to Freeport and to repave River Road with a bike lane added.

The news was not good.  Just one bid was received.  That bid was from Skyline Construction for $2,233,356.13.  There had been two estimates of the cost of the project--one from the Winneshiek County Engineer's Office, for just over $1.7 Million and another from the IDOT for just over $1.8 Million.  That means the one bid received was $400,000 to $500,000 higher than budgeted.