The Minnesota Department of Transportation has scrapped plans to put a new deck on the Hwy. 5 bridge over the Mississippi River, at least for this year.

Lunda Construction was the only contractor that bid for the project, and MnDOT rejected the bid because at $15.4 million it was too high. MnDOT budgeted slightly more than $11 million for the project.

"The bid-letting process is designed to ensure that taxpayers get the best value for their dollars," said Scott McBride, MnDOT Metro District engineer. "The Hwy. 5 bridge project is unique in that only one contractor bid on the project. Since there weren't any other bidders, we will re-let the project in the fall and begin construction next spring."

In addition to fixing the bridge over the Mississippi River, the project also was to include repairs to bridges over Edgcumbe Road and Shepard Road along with replacing guardrails and medians, replacing bridge joints and approach panels, improving drainage structures and painting bridge segments.

The bridge over Hwy. 55, which sees more than 55,000 vehicles a day, would have had head-to head traffic on the south side of the bridge this summer and on the north side of the bridge next summer.