IRON MOUNTAIN — A Quinnesec company has submitted the low bid for construction of the Pewabic Hill mountain bike trail system at $224,662.

The proposal from Iron Goat Trail Construction LLC is well within the project’s $247,200 budget and will be reviewed by city of Iron Mountain staff to see if it meets specifications.

The only other bid opened at Monday’s city council meeting was $379,118 from Rock Solid Trail Contracting LLC, which is based out of Copper Harbor with a corporate office in Bentonville, Ark.

A Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant of $183,200 will help build 6 miles of public trails on city property east of Park Avenue at East B Street, matched by $64,000 from the non-profit Dickinson Trail Network.

Bids were first opened Jan. 2, but those proposals came from general contractors, including a low offer of $262,175 from FA industrial Services Inc. of Iron River. After some research, and at the request of DTN President Chad Susott, the city council Feb. 5 decided to reject all bids.

A revised bid package prepared by Coleman Engineering Co. of Iron Mountain requires a foreman with at least five years of experience building mountain bike trails. Among other stipulations, the contractor must have built at least 10 miles of mountain bike-specific trail types identified in the package.

Steven Veihl, a DTN board member, is listed online as the agent for Iron Goat, while Rock Solid has built thousands of miles of trails across the U.S.

According to Susott, trail specialists avoided the first round of bidding in part because of a strict 60-day

deadline for completion, which was not realistic. In approving new bid specifications, the city extended the completion date to Nov. 15, 2025.

By delaying the project more than year, the city and DTN hoped to draw in a known builder to make the trail a world-class attraction. The planned Pewabic Hill trail would link to DTN’s Millie Hill Trailhead, a 5-mile system just west of Park Avenue.

If there are no delays, the city might act on the bids at its April 1 meeting.