Graham Construction & Management Inc., of Spokane, is the apparent low bidder, with a bid of $6.6 million, for the second and final phase of work to construct a bridge to carry Havana Street over railroad tracks near Broadway Avenue.

That phase of work will include the bulk of the overpass project, including constructing the 483-foot-long bridge and the approaches to it, says city of Spokane spokeswoman Ann Deasy. The bridge will be 66 feet wide, with four traffic lanes and sidewalks on both sides. It will carry Havana across the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway rail lines there. The outside traffic lanes will have bike lanes, Deasy says. The work had been estimated to cost up to $13 million.

The city expects to award a contract to Graham. The work should begin in April, and will continue until October 2011, she says.

The first phase of work on the project is under construction by Noble Excavating Inc., of Libby, Mont. Under a $600,000 contract, Noble Excavating is installing casings beneath the rail lines to carry water and a sanitary sewer line. That phase also includes installing fencing and traffic controls.

The Havana bridge project is the first of a series of planned projects often referred to as "bridging the Valley." Bridging the Valley involves a series of bridges that would separate car traffic from train traffic in a 42-mile corridor between Spokane and Athol, Idaho.

Nearby, work is under way on an $8.8 million project to replace the Freya Street bridge. That project is expected to be completed in the fall of this year.