MnDOT awarded the Blatnik Bridge replacement to Ames-Kraemer, and price broke the tie. The department picked the Ames-Kraemer Joint Venture on June 23, with Parsons leading design, at a bid near $930 million, roughly $470 million under the $1.4 billion estimate. The adjusted-score method decided it: Lunda Construction posted the higher technical mark, 93.20 to 91.38, but Ames-Kraemer’s lower price carried the award. That is a direct read on how MnDOT weights cost against technical quality on its largest design-build procurements. Parsons, which performed the preliminary engineering, will provide design and construction oversight for MnDOT and WisDOT; the states have not yet publicly named the design-build team’s lead designer ahead of the September design unveiling. Construction starts late 2026, the Duluth-Superior crossing closes for several years, and completion runs to roughly 2031. MnDOT and WisDOT will reveal the winning design at an early-September public meeting, and firms chasing subconsultant and oversight roles on the corridor should build their pursuit around that date.
Source: Engineering News-Record / MnDOT, June 23
FUNDING Minnesota’s $1.24 billion bonding law is now money in motion. Water infrastructure drew the largest share at $420 million, transportation took $177 million, and the state bridge program $25 million, alongside $47 million in local road grants. Agencies will turn these authorizations into predesign and design solicitations across the back half of the year, so pipelines that looked quiet in the spring should start filling.
Source: Minnesota House Session Daily
POLICY The Senate still has no highway bill to pair with the House’s. With the House’s five-year, roughly $580 billion reauthorization already scored and current IIJA authority lapsing September 30, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee remains in negotiation and has not introduced its version. Chair Shelley Moore Capito calls the pace slow. Every week without a Senate bill raises the odds of a stopgap that would blur MnDOT’s federal-aid planning into 2027.
Source: Roll Call, June 16
BIZ Engineering firms are strong now and guarded about next year. The ACEC Research Institute’s second-quarter survey put firm-finance confidence at plus 79 and found 49 percent of firms carrying backlogs beyond a year, yet the twelve-month outlook slipped to minus 6 and nearly half of leaders put recession odds within six months at even. Health insurance renewals ran 14 percent higher on average. Firms are, in the institute’s words, prioritizing higher-value projects and managing costs more deliberately.
Source: ACEC Research Institute, May
POLICY A narrower WOTUS rule is still pending, and it shifts the wetland-permitting math. EPA and the Army Corps proposed tightening the definition of jurisdictional waters last November, the comment window closed January 5, and a final rule is expected later this year. Fewer federally regulated waters would shrink Clean Water Act Section 404 review, though Minnesota’s own Wetland Conservation Act would still govern much of the state’s site work.
Source: U.S. EPA
Best-value selection. A design-build procurement method in which the agency ranks teams by combining price and technical score, typically dividing price by the technical points, so a lower bid can outrank a stronger technical proposal. MnDOT used it on the Blatnik Bridge, where Ames-Kraemer won despite a lower technical mark than Lunda. It rewards efficient pricing and pushes teams to right-size their technical approach instead of gold-plating it.
Build your bench: ACEC Minnesota’s Leadership Development Series for mid-career professionals runs September 2026 through April 2027 in a 24-person cohort, and the four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-career staff runs this October and November.
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Correction, July 18: An earlier version of this post said Parsons is leading design on the awarded contract for the Blatnik Bridge. Parsons holds the design and construction oversight contracts for MnDOT and WisDOT, the owners’ side of the project, and previously performed preliminary engineering. The design-build team’s lead designer has not been publicly identified.