Four bridges are slated for replacement as part of two projectsapproved by Lincoln County supervisors Monday.

In one project, supervisors awarded a $214,321 bid forreplacement of two bridges on Harvey Drive in District 5, andanother bid for $412,249 was awarded for new bridges on Union Roadand Zude-Russell Road in District 1. Both projects were awarded toKevin Coleman Construction Company of Wesson.

Bids on both projects came in less than the engineer’s estimatesfor the work. The engineer’s estimate on the first project was$255,899 and $496,409 on the second.

“We had some good bids today,” said Marty Hilton, districtengineer for state aid road construction.

District 5 Supervisor Gary Walker and District 1 SupervisorVedia Givens said new bridges on the roads are “much needed.”Walker mentioned problems caused by recent heavy rain at one of theHarvey Drive sites.

“I had to go out there nearly every time and rework the road itwas so bad,” Walker said.

Money for the bridge work will come from Lincoln County’s shareof Local System Bridge Program (LSBP) funds. In fact, the recentprojects exceed the county’s available funds by $20,800.

“We need to go into advanced credits, which is a good thing,”Hilton told the board.

Since LSBP’s inception, Lincoln County has been allocated $4.83million and has obligated slightly more than that total for bridgeprojects. Hilton did not have an exact number of bridges that havebeen repaired or replaced with those funds.

The advanced credits will be borrowed against a remaining$483,000 that Lincoln County is expected to receive in the futureas part of the current funding allocation.

County engineer associate Hugh Long praised supervisors fortaking advantage of the state bridge program.

“This is a real compliment to the board for spending the money,”Long said. “A lot of counties sit back, don’t do the work and don’tspend the money.”

Lincoln County officials would like to see the LSBP law changedto allow reallocation of bridge funds from counties that don’t usethe money within a certain time frame to counties that need and douse the money.

Coleman’s bid was the lowest of four received on the firstproject, with bids ranging up to $245,683. On the second project,his bid was the lowest of three received, the high being $451,130,after county officials disqualified one bid because of a problemwith a bid bond.

“It was not entitled to be read,” said Bob Allen, boardattorney.