By BEN LUNDIN

Staff Reporter

BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that it has considered state road improvement bids totaling more than $72 million from its March 28 public bid opening, with almost $1 million of that money going towards improvements in St. John, St. James and St. Charles parishes.

The contractor with the lowest bid for St. Charles Parish improvements is Metairie-based Pavement Marking Division of Gulf Industries Inc., which agreed to accept $492,678.50 to replace roadway striping and raise pavement markers from the St. John Parish line to Causeway Boulevard in Jefferson Parish.

The lowest bidder for improvements in St. James and St. John Parish is West Monroe-based Highway Graphics Inc., which will replace roadway striping and raise pavement markers on Interstate 10 from the Ascension Parish line to the St. Charles Parish line if its bid of $445,129.50 is accepted.

Alexandria-based Gilchrist Construction Co. LLC offered the lowest bid for the state’s most expensive job, a massive $27,9 million undertaking in Winn Parish for road base rehabilitation, drainage pipe replacement, asphalt overlay and concrete bridge work on Highway 167 from the Grant Parish line to the City of Winnfield.

The Department of Transportation has not officially contracted any entities for the road improvement projects as of April 18.