Bay Ltd. of Corpus Christi was low bidder Tuesday, April 6, on a $2 million plus highway project resurfacing 19.4 miles of State Highway 285 in Kleberg County from the Brooks County line to U.S. Highway 77.

Work could begin as early as next month, and the Texas Department of Transportation estimates it will take 39 working days to complete.

Four contractors bid on the project, and Bay Ltd’s bid of $2,117,323 was the lowest.

The company is very active in the South Texas- Coastal Bend area with projects currently under way in Nueces, Victoria, Jim Wells, San Patricio and Duval counties.

Its largest projects in progress are a $22.2 million job on State Highway 358 in Nueces County that is almost complete and a $11.8 million job on U.S. 77, also in Nueces County, that is about 50 percent complete.

The contract with Bay Ltd. for work on SH 285 must be formally awarded by the Transportation Commission, which will probably do so at its April 29 meeting in Beaumont.

The specifications for the Kleberg County project calls for overlaying, or resurfacing, the roadway. It is not a total rebuilding of the highway.

Other bids on the project came from Ballenger Construction Co. of Harlingen, $2.25 million; Haas- Anderson Construction, Ltd., of Corpus Christi, $2.38 million; and Foremost Paving, Inc., of Weslaco, $2.50 million.

This project is one of and the largest of eight planned in Kleberg County during the state’s fiscal year, which ends on Aug. 31. Four are, like this one, to be paid for by appropriations by the state legislature and bonds. The DoT calls them “traditionally funded.”

They include a $127,055 project resurfacing almost four miles of FM 118 near its intersection with US 77.

Another is a $122,466 resurfacing project at the end of the state maintenance of FM 2045. A third is an $88,414 job on FM 1118 resurfacing three miles in the vicinity of FM 772.

And, the fourth is an $80,475 project on FM 425 resurfacing one mile at its intersection with US 77.

The other three will be funded by Proposition 14 funds, or select projects using funds from bonds backed by the state highway fund and identified for “accelerated development.”

They include $546,364 for intersection improvements on FM 1356 at its intersection with FM 1717, and the DoT says it will be ready for bidding in July. Another is for $372,991 to install and upgrade a safety barrier and construction of center turn lanes on U.S. 77 at its intersection with SL 286. The third is for $317,377 to widen the roadway on a portion of RM 628 at its intersection with CR 2295. Bids for the last two will be opened in August, the DoT says.