Tunnel to be done sooner, but to cost more

The bids are in for the Devil’s Slide Tunnel, and the Chronicle is reporting that at $272 million, the lowest bid is $32 million higher than Caltrans estimated it would cost. That doesn’t include the bridge and highway realignment at the south entrance, which bring the total to $330 million.

The good new is that low bidder Kiewit Pacific says they can get it done in four years, not five. Construction begins next summer. Since we were expecting the tunnel to be done in 2011, it’s not clear that the four-year completion estimate gets the tunnel here any sooner.