The apparent low bid for rehabbing the Camden Bridge in Minneapolis is more than $1 million below estimates, and that's good news for the Minneapolis fire department.
That's because the city plans to use about $810,000 of the savings to prevent the layoffs of at least a dozen firefighters.
What's the connection between bridge bids and firefighters?
The closing of the bridge for at least five months means that nearby fire stations on each side of the Mississippi River can't readily back each other up, especially with the Lowry Bridge also being replaced. So fire officials plan to add a second engine at Station 15 at 2701 Johnson St. NE. The Camden Bridge connects 42nd Avenue N. and 37th Avenue NE.
The city last fall gave layoff notices to 27 firefighters, all in the face of a looming 2010 budget gap.
As part of a multi-pronged effort to avoid that, the City Council in December decreed that up to $810,000 of any savings below the estimated bridge rehab cost of $10.8 million would go to the fire budget, buttressing fire protection in areas near the closure.
The apparent low bid from Lunda Construction Co was $9.54 million for what is the city's largest capital project using stimulus money. The low bid means that the city will return a small amount of the $10 million in federal stimulus money earmarked for the bridge and can help firefighters by dipping into some of the $4 million in city funds it earmarked for the project.
"It's definitely going to oomph-up the protection," said Council President Barbara Johnson, whose ward adjoins the west end of the bridge.
