Squeezing savings out of Unity Bridge

City, contractor, developer have plan to save money

Demolition of the Sixth Street Bridge on March 7, 2023 (Jonathan Ellis/The Dakota Scout)

Savings they wanted, and savings they’ve found.

Sioux Falls and the company that won the bid to rebuild the Sixth Street Unity Bridge in downtown have reached agreements that will save $1.5 million. Besides the city and the Journey Group, the negotiations also included Jeff Scherschligt, the developer of the Cherapa Place campus adjacent to the Sixth Street Bridge.

Demolition of the old bridge is under way.

Journey Group, which also is the contractor on the Cherapa campus, bid the bridge project at $21.8 million, almost double what the city budgeted. It was an amount that saw jaws hit the floor at City Hall when the bid was opened in December. Journey was the sole bidder.

It was another example of inflation hammering construction projects as billions of dollars in federal spending has saturated the regional market.

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