Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Providence (Dec 19/05) - The Deh Cho Bridge Corporation will now have to choose between only two bids to build a bridge across the Mackenzie River. One of the four firms invited to submit a tender has withdrawn while two of the others are now forming a joint bid.

Andrew Gamble, bridge project manager, said the construction and engineering companies are simply busy and have limited resources to devote to the endeavour.

He sounded optimistic that the remaining competitors will keep the price within reason.

"They're both pretty aggressive and they're both big players. We trust that at least one of them will be a good, competitive bid," he said. "But we don't want to lose another one."

The Deh Cho Bridge Corporation has extended the date for submission of the tenders to Jan. 20 at the request of the construction firms.

The original due date was Dec. 6.