Award of two contracts totaling $255,749 for road and bridge construction on the Cheyenne River and Lower Brule Indian Reservations in South Dakota was announced today by the Department of the Interior.
The larger contract for $205,818, involves the grading, draining, and crushed gravel surfacing and construction of one bridge, 93 feet in length, on 12.4 miles of Cheyenne River Reservation Route 8 running west from Willow Creek. This is the second section of approximately 50 miles of all-weather road proposed for construction to serve 40 Indian families, including many who have resettled from the Oahe reservoir taking area, being established in stock raising enterprises in the southeastern section of the Cheyenne River Reservation. A 12.7 mile section of this road extending south from U.S. Highway 212 to Willow Creek is presently being constructed under a previous contract. The road, when completed, will serve for school bus, mail route, and farm to market travel.
The successful bidder was Delzer Construction Company of Selby, South Dakota. Eight other bids were received ranging to $259,378.
A second contract for $49,930 provides for construction of reinforced concrete bridges over Cedar Creek, Straight Creek, and LaRoche Creek on the Lower Brule Reservation Route 10 in Lyman and Stanley Counties, South Dakota. The construction of the bridges is a part of the improvement to all-weather standards of some 43 miles of road extending west from the Lower Brule Subagency, north of Reliance, South Dakota, to a connection near the northwest corner of the Lower Brule Reservation to a Stanley County road leading to U. S. Highway 83 and on to Pierre, South Dakota. Besides benefiting farm and ranching operations, mail delivery, and education of Indian children in a large area along the south side of the Missouri River in Lyman and Stanley Counties, this road will also have recreational value. It will provide access to much of the shoreline of the impounded lake that will be created when the Big Bend Dam across the Missouri River is completed.
The contract for construction of the bridges was awarded to Burton Jensen of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Nine bids were received ranging to a high of fi73,233.
