Following a rare tie base bid on a construction project planned on the Lewis-Clark State College campus in Lewiston, Idaho, Waynco Construction Inc., of Spokane Valley, apparently has lost the job to competing bidder Kenaston Corp., the college says.

Kenaston, of Lewiston, and Waynco both submitted $1.4 million base bids to upgrade the college's longtime fine arts building and convert it for use by LCSC's business college, says Matt Graves, physical plant director there.

Graves says that in his 30 years at LCSC, he hasn't seen another project in which two companies submitted apparent low bids that matched to the penny.

Kenaston's edge came down to alternate bids for work beyond the base project, which when added onto Kenaston's base bid came to a total just under LCSC's $1.6 million budget for the project, or $20,000 less than Waynco's combined base and alternate bids, Graves says.

The three-story, 12,000-square-foot building was built as a dormitory in 1909. It since has been used by LCSC's science and music departments and, most recently, the fine arts department.

The work will involve renovating the interior space to create two classrooms, a computer lab, nine offices, and the business college dean's suite, Graves says.

Graves says he expects work to start within two weeks, depending on approval of the contract by the Idaho Department of Public Works.