The Minnesota Department of Transportation has rejected the low bid for road work connecting to the new St. Croix Bridge because low-bidder C.S. McCrossan didn't meet the department's goal for using disadvantaged businesses in the work.
Officials from C.S. McCrossan, the low bidder by $6 million on the Hwy. 36 project, are meeting with Gov. Mark Dayton today to discuss the issue, reports MPR.
MnDOT initially gave the job to C.S. McCrossan, which had a low bid of $52.3 million for the job. But later, MnDOT rejected the bid, and gave the job to Ames Construction of Burnsville and Lunda Construction of Black River Falls, Wis., which had bid $58.1 million.
But the Ames/Lunda group met MnDOT's goal of 16.7 percent for disadvantaged business participation, while McCrossan only had 10.6 percent.
McCrossan protested the decision with the state Department of Administration.
The alignment work on Hwy. 36 near the St. Croix River is an early phase of building the major river bridge near Oak Park Heights.