Main Double Track bids higher than expected
Offers are for work between Gary and Michigan City
Two bids opened Tuesday for the main part of the South Shore Line’s $491 million Double Track project were higher than the railroad’s management had expected.
The construction bids were opened at a Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District procurement committee meeting.
The lower bid, $399,674,000, is from F.H. Paschen, S.N. Nielsen and Associates, Chicago.
If awarded at that amount, it would consume more than 80% of the Double Track project’s anticipated costs.
The NICTD board could issue bonds for another $25 million for the project if needed.
The other Double Track bid of $424,524,480 is from Walsh/ Herzog Joint Venture.
Contacted after the committee meeting, Noland said the bids were “definitely higher than anticipated.”
He said the railroad’s management will analyze the bids before making a recommendation to the NICTD board later this month.
The main contract includes new tracks, bridges, signals and overhead power lines between Gary and Michigan City, as well as a new
track configuration through Michigan City streets.
A joint venture of Paschen and Ragnar Benson Construction also has a $535 million design/ build contract for the South Shore Line’s other major project, the $945 million West Lake Corridor between Hammond and Dyer.
The West Lake contract includes designing as well as building the new 8-mile rail line and four new stations.
In the Double Track project, the contractor will not also be designing the work.
Two other Double Track contracts, awarded Tuesday by the NICTD board, were lower than expected.
Larson-Danielson Construction Co., of LaPorte, won a $16,714,000 contract to build the new Michigan City station building on 11th Street, which will include a parking garage and space for stores.
Hasse Construction Co., of Calumet City, Illinois, won a $4,069,000 contract to build the new Miller station in Gary.
Larson-Danielson’s was the lowest of four bids submitted earlier, and Hasse’s was the lowest of five.
Also Tuesday, Noland noted a historic event early May 1: the last time a South Shore passenger — or any commuter train passenger in the United States — stepped from a train onto a street. The 11th Street stop closed then to prepare for the Double Track construction.
The South Shore line first opened in 1908 during the interurban era, when small trains linked towns and cities throughout Indiana, often running along streets.
The 11th Street route in Michigan City is the last vestige of that era.