The American Tobacco Trail bridge over I-40 has – you guessed it – hit a snag again.

Wednesday was bid-opening day for the long-awaited, oft-delayed final segment of the popular greenway. But, according to city contract manager Byron Brady, there weren't enough bids to open.

State law requires at least three. There were only two. So now the $7.8-million job is being re-advertised for bids with opening date now set for Feb. 15.

The bridge, near Southpoint Mall, and a 4.2-mile trail segment, has been on the city's to-do list for more than a decade.

New twist but the same old story: the American Tobacco Trail bridge over I-40 delayed again.

This time, the culprit is a wage dispute between the NCDOT and the U.S. Department of Labor. City Manager Tom Bonfield notified City Council members Thursday that the dispute won't be settled until after Jan. 1.

The dispute involves estimates the Labor Department uses to set wage rates for projects that use federal money, such as the long-awaited pedestrian/cyclist bridge near Southpoint Mall.

Durham had to put the project out for a second round of bidding after first-round bids came in $2 million over the available funding. After some months of budget juggling, city administrators came up with enough to cover the shortfall and advertised for bids again.

Second-round bids were to be opened Dec. 15. Now, Bonfield said, that's been pushed back until Jan. 25.

Money from several sidewalk and bicycle-lane projects will get diverted to completing the American Tobacco Trail near Southpoint Mall if the city goes along with a recommendation from the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization's technical committee.

The ATT project includes a bridge over Interstate 40 and hard-surfacing for the trail from N.C. 54 to the Chatham County line. Low bid on the project was $7.7 million, $1.9 million more than the amount appropriated.

However, the project is being re-bid at insistence of the state Department of Transportation, which is providing 80 percent of its money.

The MPO's transportation committee, Durham City Council and NCDOT have to approve the committee suggestion, which involves using funds allocated for sidewalk and bicycle-friendly construction on Morreene Road, Carpenter Fletcher Road, Hillandale Road and Cheek Road, according to Durham Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator Dale McKeel.

Redirecting money would not affect the Hillandale Road section currently in reconstruction, between I-85 and Carver Street; it does delay construction on the section south of the Interstate, through Hillandale Golf Course to Club Boulevard.

Some financing would also come from money left over from the R. Kelly Bryant Pedestrian Bridge on the Durham Freeway.

The state DOT has sidetracked the American Tobacco Trail's bridge over Interstate 40.

Durham city officials were informed this morning they have to re-bid the project, because their engineer's estimate was more than $2 million below the lowest contractor's bid.

"We were trying to push it on through, but it didn't work out that way," said Ed Venable, engineering manager at the city public works department.

A site plan for the American Tobacco Trail's long- (long, long) awaited Interstate 40 bridge is on the agenda.

The plan has been under City Hall's administrative review since last August.The Development Review Board approved it March 19. The Durham Appearance Commission approved it in 2008. The bridge (above, in a designer's rendering) has been part of the ATT plan since at least 1999 (before the trail itself ever opened).

As described in the site plan, the bridge and its approaches are "a 10 foot wide, 1.89 mile portion of a 4.1 mile public greenway trail to connect to the existing American Tobacco Trail system."

Gaining City Council approval would be one more advance for the bridge, but trail aficionados shouldn't get too excited. Before the council can sign off, the plan's got to get a "major special use permit" from the Board of Adjustment. It next meets May 25, but the agenda isn't published yet.

This is one project where the hoops just keep on coming.

Durham's city administration is holding a "drop-in" update meeting on the American Tobacco Trail I-40 bridge project next week.

There is no formal presentation planned, but city engineer R. Lee Murphy and project consultants will be on hand from 4 to 7 p.m. Sept. 17 (a Wednesday) to answer questions about the bridge and 4-mile trail extension from N.C. 54 south past Southpoint shopping center.

Preliminary design for the bridge is expected to be ready by December and for the trail in January, with construction finished by the end of 2010. The projects will complete the ATT from the American Tobacco complex to the Chatham County line.

If you're one of 120,000 registered voters in Durham, a new mailer will soon be hitting your mailbox boasting a pro-foods tax slogan: "A Taste for Durham's Future."

Nearly 40 Durham cheerleaders, movers and shakers have come together and formed a non-profit to promote a 1-percent prepared foods tax. The tax could be implemented if voters approve in Nov. 4 referendum.

If implemented, the tax is expected to generate as much as $5 million a year to pay for new and improved cultural attractions, including the Hayti Heritage Center, a Minor League Baseball museum and the American Tobacco Trail.