JEFFERSON COUNTY - Southeast Nebraskans eagerly awaiting improvements to a well-traveled stretch of road won't have to wait much longer: serving as the prelude to progress on the rest of the PWF Road, one main bridge will start to see some renovations as soon as next week.

Members of the Jefferson County board of commissioners and the highway department assessed a total of eight bids from construction companies from Nebraska and Iowa earlier this month, all seeking to tackle the task of reconstructing a critical but ailing bridge on the PWF Road, which connects Jefferson to Gage Counties via Pawnee, Wymore and Fairbury. 

Officials from NDOT and Olsson surveyed and assessed the bridge and the land around the road itself in March, an essential checkpoint for a project with federal money involved. Anchored by county highway superintendent Tim Farmer, that group permitted the bridge to be let out separately from the rest of the road, meaning construction on the bridge could start sooner. Farmer's group initially estimated the project would cost the county around $981,000. 

“That’s what we figured the cost would be bid by a contractor, our best guess based on historical bids," Farmer said at the weekly Jefferson County board meeting earlier in October. "Bids submitted are what it would cost the county to build. That’s what they will charge to get this done."

And the county is getting $500,000 of that cost covered courtesy of NDOT’s County Bridge Match Program – Jefferson County has been granted money for a project like this 11 times since the program’s inception, part of the reason why the county commissioners publicly vouched for an extension of statewide funding for the project earlier this month. 

With the bids submitted, it was then up to Farmer’s team at Speece Lewis to analyze all the attributes – including cost, start and completion date, and other factors. 

“I’ll verify all the math first, and then generally, if the contractor is reputable – which all of these contractors were – and have shown they can do this project, we’ll base our recommendation off the low bid,” Farmer said. “The county’s not in the business to spend more than what they need to to get a job like that done.” 

Farmer’s team reviewed the eight candidates and ultimately recommended the county accept the bid from JJK Construction out of Ceresco from nearby Lancaster County. After adjustments, that bid came in at around $885,000, by far the lowest price tag on the table – and the expected early November construction start date was the quickest turnaround time as well.  

Assistant highway supervisor Terry Blas noted that JJK Construction has worked on this specific bridge before, and that even though federal money is required for this project, it hasn’t been cut off due to the ongoing government shutdown. 

“Ironically, the lowest bid is also the one that said they can start the fastest – so everything’s lining up,” Farmer said. 

"That’s why they’re the lowest bid, because they need the work,” commissioner Michael Dux said. 

"They’re hungry for work and to start,” Farmer agreed. 

Southeast Nebraskans who use the PWF Road to get to work, school or family are hungry as well, anxious to see progress on a roadway which everyone involved has publicly acknowledged needs a lot of work. And now, with the bid unanimously approved by the three commissioners, construction on the bridge can now officially begin – the impetus of a yearslong project to repair the PWF Road itself.  

“This is the beginning of the restoration of the PWF Road, starting on this bridge. This is the beginning of the project,” board chairman Mark Schoenrock said. “Tim and I serve on the NDOT project management team for the rest of the road, and we are working as diligently as we can to have that process go as quickly as we can. Right now we are projected to open bids next summer, the summer of 2026, on the actual road. Right now we don’t see any significant roadblocks for us to get to bid-letting for the rest of the road.” 

It was first determined that this bridge would need essential improvements at the end of 2024 and now, 11 months later, those improvements will finally happen when construction kicks off in early November.