BEATRICE – The City of Beatrice now has a contractor for reconstruction of east Lincoln Street and the intersection at 33rd and Lincoln.
The bid of Constructors Inc., of Lincoln, totaling about $2.33 million, was approved by the Beatrice City Council Monday night. It’s a three-phase project which City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says will be getting underway sooner than expected.


"They believe that they can start in June....early June. That was good news."


The first phase will be from the middle of the Christ Community Church lot to the intersection of 33rd and Lincoln, and will take about three months to complete. The second phase taking about four months, will be construction of a round-a-bout at 33rd and Lincoln.  The final phase, estimated to take about two months, is the westernmost section of Lincoln Street.


The overall project, with engineering costs, totals about $4.3 million. Tempelmeyer says an agreement for project oversight is the next step.
"You're going to want to have somebody out here managing this, making sure everybody is doing what they should do, according to plans. That will be the next contract we will be bringing back, with JEO."


The city’s engineering department would also be able to provide some oversight.  Mayor Bob Morgan said a provision of the Constructors contract is to not leave a project area unfinished going into winter weather.


"If we get to November or December 1st, we probably aren't going to start another phase, because we want to try to get everything done before mother nature hits us."


The round-a-bout intersection at 33rd and Lincoln will shift the intersection slightly to the southwest and will not require any additional right-of-way from homeowners along the east side of 33rd.


The project is along two sides of the new Beatrice Public Schools prekindergarten to fifth grade school, that will open for the new school year.
Seven companies submitted bids for the work and the Constructors bid was the lowest cost.