General contracting powerhouse Tutor Perini recently picked up a nice shot-in-the-arm for its books.
Lunda Construction Co., a Wisconsin-based subsidiary of the Sylmar-based contractor, was this week awarded a $62 million contract by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to repair the I-494 bridge over the Minnesota River. The company said work would begin immediately.
The scope of work includes pavement repair, reconstruction of the regional trail, replacement of the bridge joints, repair of the bridge deck, beam ends and railings, reconstruction of the bearings, replacement of the highway lighting and both repair and replacement of drainage systems. Lunda expects to complete the work by summer 2026.
The contract is certainly welcome for Tutor Perini, which posted a net loss of $210 million last year and saw its backlog shrink even more in spite of being awarded a number of projects. While speaking to investors during the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report, Chief Executive Ronald Tutor noted that the company is counting on a swath of public project bids to be successful this year and to grow its backlog.
The bridge repair contract will be counted toward Tutor Perini’s first-quarter backlog although $62 million is a relatively small contract for the firm — which has submitted a nearly $3-billion bid for a New York City jail project this year and is eyeing a second such proposal next month — it is certainly a welcome one. The company lost nearly $93 million alone in the fourth quarter of 2022.
After dropping the previous week to $5.34, Tutor Perini shares climbed 28 cents on Monday following the announcement of this project.