The lowest of the five bids the Butler Redevelopment Authority opened Wednesday for the Lincoln Avenue reconstruction project fits the cost estimates.

Heeter Enterprises of Emlenton's base bid of $156,651 is close to the estimated cost, said Ron Olsen of the authority's engineering firm, Olsen Craft Associates.

He said he will review the bid and make a recommendation to the authority, which will consider awarding a contract at its meeting Thursday.

“We'll check all the math, then we will certify the bids to the redevelopment authority,” Olsen said.

The four other bids ranged from $251,315 to $319,244.

The project includes reconstructing about 400 feet of Lincoln Avenue from Short Street to Grant Street and includes building access ramps for people with disabilities to the Butler Arbors, a federally subsidized apartment building for the elderly and disabled, on Lincoln Avenue, Olsen said.

Alternative bids were accepted for a shorter version of the project, extending from Short Street to just before Grant Street, measuring 350 to 375 feet.

Heeter also submitted the lowest alternate bid of $35,772. The other alternate bids ranged from $51,260 to $73,257.

Olsen said it will be up to the authority board to decide whether to proceed with the entire project or the alternate. The work at the Arbors is included in both, he said.

The Arbors accepts tenants with low and moderate income, which allows the authority to use federal Community Development Block Grant money to pay for the reconstruction project, said Veronica Walker, authority acting executive.

Lincoln Avenue connects to Kaufman Drive, which the authority plans to reconstruct in the future, and both have bases made of brick rubble and silica sand.

Silica sand was a byproduct from the old Franklin Glass plant and was used in the base of the roads, which were built in the 1930s.

Water then enters the road base through cracks in the surface and washes away the silica sand, Olsen said.

The concrete road surfaces have been overlaid with asphalt over the years and is crumbling, he said.