I was just wondering the other day when the 35W/62 construction was going to start, as I was sitting parked on 169 on my way home from work. Looks like they have no idea.

Set to start in August with completion in late 2008, work on a new interchange at Crosstown Hwy. 62 and Interstate Hwy. 35W was delayed indefinitely Friday because no road builders bid for the $250 million contract.

Builders were turned off by the state’s requirement that they front about $90,000,000 to keep work going until the state received federal funds and could pay them back. MnDOT proposed the unorthodox financing to get the project started after years of delays, though the agency didn’t have all the money in hand to pay construction bills.

This project has been in the works for, like, forever. I can’t believe they couldn’t find a way to make it happen. I don’t know much about construction contracts and the bidding process. While it seems to me like $90,000 isn’t a whole lot to front on a $250 million contract, I can see how a company would be wary if the state hasn’t actually secured adequate funding as of the start of the project.

All I know is that traffic is gonna suck either way. It sucks now. It’ll suck during construction. And two years later when the construction is done it’ll still suck because there will be that many more cars on the road.

(via MNspeak)

(It drove me nuts for months upon first moving here trying to figure out what they hell highway they were talking about on the news when they said “the Crosstown.” Numbers, people! Numbers! Chicago is really bad about that. “The Dan Ryan” means nothing to me. Is that 94 or 90 or what?)