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The contractor's bid is well below the city engineer's estimate of $1,159,000.
City Engineer Dan Boyce said he checked references on Goodwin Brothers before making his recommendation to go with the firm.
"I've never gotten better references on a contractor," Boyce told the council.
He said a pre-construction conference with Goodwin representatives is scheduled for Dec. 16. The city expects actual work to start after the first of the year.
The contractor will have 150 calendar days to complete the project, according to bid specifications.
The bridge, built in the mid-1970s, is in need of replacement. Interim structural repairs were made in 2007 and earlier this year the city reduced the maximum weight limit on the bridge from 40 to 31 tons. The weight limit for single-axle trucks was reduced from 21 to 17 tons.
The current bridge spans 172 feet and has a deck width of 29 feet. A new 180-foot-long span with a 32-foot-wide roadway is proposed.
The project is in the 2009-2012 Transportation Improvement Program for the St. Louis Metropolitan region.
During the improvement project, traffic will have to be detoured around the bridge site.
City officials said the likely detour route will be the same as when the bridge was closed in 2007 for repairs.
That route was on West Main Street to Bernard Avenue, then on Grand Avenue to Fifth Street.
The latest revised programmed cost for the new bridge is $1,132,200 which includes $81,200 for engineering, $10,000 for testing and $1,041,000 for construction.
The project will be funded with $884,000 in federal funds and a $248,200 match by the city.
The city applied for a $75,000 grant from Franklin County to reduce the local match but was denied recently.
Other bids submitted for the project were:
* Unnerstall Contracting, Pacific, $1,124,232.45;
* X-L Contracting, Inc., $1,138,246;
* Gershenson Construction, $1,158,220;
* Eckelkamp Excavating, Inc., $1,163,551.98;
* L. Krupp Co., $1,168,872;
* Pace Construction, $1,230,000;
* Kozeny-Wagner, $1,275,550.60;
* KCI, $1,280,545.50; and
* Concrete Strategies, $1,280,759.99.
Four of the bidders did not provide bid security as required in the contract specifications, according to a letter from Boyce.
