The California Department of Transportation has closed bids on a project to repair Highway 99 through Stanislaus County. The project will replace a section of 99 in Turlock, Ceres and Modesto from the San Joaquin County line to the Merced County line at an estimated cost of around $76 million.

The contract for the project went out to bid on Dec. 6. Project engineers estimated the project to rehabilitate concrete pavement on Hwy.  99 all the way through Stanislaus County would cost around $65 million. The lowest bid on the project came from Myers and Sons Construction LP based in Sacramento.

The project will include the replacement of approximately 120,000 cubic yards of rapid strength concrete and 180,000 tons of asphalt on Hwy. 99 in and around Turlock, Ceres and Modesto — 250,000 square yards of concrete grinding will also be replaced.

The contract for the replacement project award has received recommendation but is still in the funding verification stage. If the final award is granted to Myers and Sons Construction, the project is estimated to start in March 2012. Contractors expect to be finished with the project in 12 months. Patrick Manning, chairman and CEO of Sterling Construction Company, an affiliate of Myers & Sons Construction, released a statement about the project.

“We look forward to beginning this project which adds to our backlog in California and represent our second major win for Sterling this quarter,” Manning said.

To contact Andrea Goodwin, e-mail agoodwin@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2003.