SANDPOINT — Two Bonner County Road and Bridge bids were approved Tuesday at the Bonner County commissioners’ meeting.

The first bid is for a magnesium chloride contract, said director Jason Topp, which the county uses for dust abatement on the county roads. The bid announcement first went out at the beginning of April, and the department received two bids in return.

The first bid, from the GMCO Corporation, estimated the 4,000 tons of magnesium chloride needed would cost the county roughly $699,680 — averaging $172 per ton. The second bid came from EnviroTech Services, estimating a cost of $716,000 — around $179 per ton.

“These prices reflect a 9.5% increase over the prices from 2023,” Topp said. “In itself, it’s 22% over what it was in 2022.”

The director said that the department added an extra $200,000 to the dust abatement budget line item, but the bid costs are still in an excess amount of what they budgeted for the project.

“This quantity of product is needed in order to treat the typical 400 application miles with higher traffic counts,” he said.

Topp recommended that the board approve the bid to the GMCO Corporation, which was unanimously approved. The funding for this project will come from two budget line items from the department, with roughly $640,000 coming from Dust Abatement and the remainder coming from an asphalt line item.

The bid for the department’s 2024 asphalt projects was also approved Tuesday. Bidding opened at the beginning of April and the county received three responses.

Interstate Concrete & Asphalt bid the county at roughly $738,550, Woods Crushing and Hauling bid at around $743,300, and Poe Asphalt Supply estimated a cost of $969,500.

Topp recommended that the board approve the project bid to Interstate as they were the lowest bid. The funds for these projects will also come from the department’s Asphalt budget line.

The board unanimously approved the 2024 asphalt project bid.