JOHN DAY – The next meeting of the Grant County Chamber of Commerce will feature a presentation about benefits to the local economy resulting from the Oregon Department of Transportation’s upcoming bridge construction projects.

The luncheon will be at noon Tuesday, July 10, at the Outpost Trading Co. restaurant, 201 W. Main Street, in John Day.

Skilled highway construction workers, contractors and materials suppliers are in demand in Eastern Oregon and across the state as ODOT repairs or replaces hundreds of bridges through the $1.3 billion OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program.

Jim Hagar, economic development manager for Oregon Bridge Delivery Partners, ODOT’s program management firm on the bridge program, will speak at the Chamber meeting. He will focus on bridge work in Grant, Umatilla and Harney counties.

The talk will cover contracting opportunities on a $30 million project to replace seven bridges and repair one other between Pendleton and Burns. Hagar will discuss opportunities for area contractors to bid on the project and provide information about the positive economic impact of such work on local businesses, such as hotels, restaurants and gas stations.

The request for qualifications for contractors will be issued July 27; the request for proposal is scheduled to be released Oct. 2.

For more information, contractors may contact Russell Swearingen, ODOT design-build coordinator, at (503) 986-6639 or at (Russell.Swearingen@odot.state.or.us).

To learn more about the luncheon or to RSVP, contact the Chamber, 575-0547.

The OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program is part of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s 10-year, $3 billion Oregon Transportation Investment Act. OTIA funds will repair or replace hundreds of bridges, pave and maintain city and county roads, improve and expand interchanges, add new capacity to Oregon’s highway system, and remove freight bottlenecks statewide.

About 17 family-wage jobs are sustained for every $1 million spent on transportation construction in Oregon. Each year during the OTIA program, construction projects will sustain about 5,000 family-wage jobs.