New Britain Busway station bids lower than estimated - The Bristol Press (bristolpress.com)

New Britain Busway station bids lower than estimated - The Bristol Press (bristolpress.com): NEW BRITAIN — The state Department of Transportation has received bids well below previous estimates for three major construction contracts for the New Britain-Hartford Busway.

The low bids for the three contracts averaged about 20 percent below engineers’ estimates, officials said.

Estimates for construction of the Busway station in downtown New Britain ranged as high as $35 million, but the lowest bid came in at $26.7 million from Manafort Brothers Inc. of Plainville. The downtown station is expected to be the largest Busway station, situated on Main Street and extending back toward the current police station.

A segment of the station will be built in a northerly direction along an abandoned rail line, over Route 9 on a new bridge, to Stanley Street, a distance of approximately 0.7 miles. The off-ramp from Route 72 to Route 71 will be realigned to allow express buses from south and west of New Britain to enter the station area.