A street with a history of erosion problems in Marthasville will be undergoing a facelift soon. Last week, the board of aldermen awarded a bid for $112,746.25 to Marthasville-based Lamke Trenching and Excavating to widen South Street and help alleviate stormwater runoff. The winning bid was a pleasant surprise for city officials, since preliminary engineering estimates provided by Lewis-Bade, Inc., had the cost around $144,000. The remaining 11 bids ranged from $130,720.66 to $219,966.95. The second-lowest bid was submitted by Karrenbrock Construction of New Melle. "Seeing 12 bids, it's proof (companies) are hungry right now," Mayor Dale Verges said. "It's good timing for us." Verges had previously said it was his desire to see South Street be widened near the top of the hill next to St. Paul's Cemetery. He was concerned there wasn't much room for vehicles to avoid one another should they meet at a blind spot. Another aspect of the project includes upgrading the city's sewer lines along the street, Verges said. City officials were concerned continued runoff might lead to the hill washing away. The top of the street sits next to St. Paul's United Church of Christ and runs downhill next to the Marthasville Ambulance District building. "It's been a priority, a work in progress," Verges said. "We've been trying to get this going and it's taken awhile. We had to make sure funding was available. "It was pleasant to see the Lamke bid come in so low. We're happy to be using them since they're local." A preconstruction meeting was held Tuesday to go over final details. Work is expected to begin later this week. At last week's meeting, Bart Korman of Lewis-Bade said representatives from Lamke indicated the street project could be wrapped up in two weeks. Weather could halt progress if construction crews have trouble laying asphalt, he added. The contract calls for the project to be completed in 100 days. "It sounds like it's going to go fast," Verges said. When city officials began looking to upgrade South Street a year ago, they believed the high cost might force them to break the project down into three phases. However, a better-than-expected bid will help keep expenses down. Verges said approximately $118,000 is available in the street fund, but rather than depleting the account, the city can use around $18,000 from the water fund to pay for some of the work. The capital improvement fund also has around $50,000 available if needed. Aldermen unanimously approved awarding the bid to Lamke Trenching. In addition, the board voted 4-0 to allow Lewis-Bade to conduct the bidding process, a formality needed after reaching a verbal agreement last month. At the September meeting, the city had to cancel the bid process when officials learned the bid package didn't include some statutory requirements related to prevailing wage and bond specification guidelines.