The Mackinac Bridge Authority says they’re going back to the drawing board on proposals for one of its upcoming construction projects.
The northern viaduct is the northern most point of the Mackinac Bridge and the portion of the bridge over the causeway and is not over water.
The Bridge Authority has been seeking bids to repave this portion as it ages and starts to crack.
Cole Cavalieri is the chief engineer of the Mackinac Bridge. He says the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on things like costs of materials and labor impacted this round of contract bids.
“It still has not come back down. So that was a big factor. We did inflate our prices going in, to try and account for that. And we unfortunately just weren’t able to capture that," said Cavalieri.
The Bridge Authority says they’ll likely be able to keep on schedule to begin construction this fall.
