The Abridged version:
- Construction bids that Sacramento received for the I Street Bridge replacement project were millions higher than anticipated, the city announced Wednesday. The existing bridge over the Sacramento River has connected Yolo and Sacramento counties for more than a century.
- Bid documents show that the city expected the cost to be $260 million, but the lowest bid received was for just under $399 million.
- The city still hopes to complete the project, but the timeline is pushed back until at least 2027. It was previously expected to begin this summer.
After more than 110 years connecting Sacramento and Yolo counties, the old I Street Bridge can’t retire just yet.
Sacramento officials hoped to begin construction on a shiny new replacement for the I Street Bridge this summer, but they announced Wednesday that plans had hit a multi-million-dollar snag. All three bids received for building the new bridge came in millions above what the city budgeted, with the lowest being $98.5 million more than anticipated.
“The higher-than-expected costs mean the project is no longer on track to begin construction this summer, as previously anticipated,” a news release said. “City staff are expected to recommend rejecting the current bids due to the cost gap and returning to the market after refining bid documents and conducting outreach with contractors to better understand market conditions.”
Darren Lueking, pursuit and construction manager at Traylor Bros., Inc, said that the market for these kinds of projects is difficult right now. His company submitted a bid for just under $517 million, almost double what the city listed as its estimated bid value.
Lueking said that a complex lift bridge project like this has a lot of components and everything, from steel to mechanical equipment, has gotten more expensive.
“It’s really across the board,” he told Abridged on Thursday.
Lueking said that a lot of public agencies are having the same issue when it comes to building infrastructure. If a project is planned and designed over the course of a couple of years, cost estimates can be out of date when it comes down to the bidding process.
“It’s a terrible situation across the country,” he said.
An ambitious project
Sacramento planned the new I Street Bridge, upstream from the existing structure, to be a nearly $300 million project that would provide a more convenient crossing for vehicles and buses than the existing structure. The old bridge, built more than a century ago, is too narrow to provide the kind of mobility required for buses, bicycles and pedestrians.
If the plan moves ahead, the old bridge will have its deck converted for use by cyclists and pedestrians but not motor vehicles. West Sacramento is taking the lead on that project and has secured funding for up to $21.2 million for its contribution.
Lanaya Lewis, spokesperson for West Sacramento, said the city’s “ultimate contribution amount will be finalized via a future cost-sharing agreement with the City of Sacramento.”
Looking ahead
More than a decade in the making, the replacement bridge project has jumped through design, environmental clearance, funding and permitting hoops on its way to construction.
“At this point, it’s truly shovel-ready,” said Sacramento assistant city manager Ryan Moore in the release. “If we don’t move forward from here, it would be extremely difficult to get a project like this back to this stage in the future.”
The city still plans to move ahead with the new bridge but is “evaluating potential adjustments to the project’s scope.”
As it stands, officials are looking at a 2027 construction start date, but no adjusted timeline has been settled on.