The Georgia Department of Transportation has been seeking bids for more than a year to widen the road near John Davenport Drive, realign the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks and replace the narrow bridge.

Friday was the latest deadline and the single bid — $10,317,376.11 from CW Matthews Co. — is more than twice the amount officials have budgeted. Contract Administrator Greg Mayo said a decision would not be announced for two weeks, but he confirmed the state has $4.9 million to spend on the project.

“That’s pretty alarming,” Rome Mayor Ronnie Wallace said. “I would hope the DOT would revisit their estimates, given the number of times this project has been out for bid.”

Construction funding was allocated in 2004, but bids received in January, April, July and October 2005 were rejected as too high.

Wallace said the dogleg under the bridge creates congestion and the low clearance poses a problem for some vehicles. He expressed disappointment at the fifth apparently unsuccessful call for bids.

“It seems reasonable to suspect there’s something wrong there, and maybe the design or complexity of the project needs to be revisited,” the mayor said. “There’s got to be more than one party interested in a project of that magnitude.”

A federal lawsuit also threatens to scuttle the project. Rome resident David Fowler said the new, wider railroad bridge would encroach on the remains of Fort Attaway — an earthwork fort that is the site of Rome’s only Civil War battle.

He filed suit against the Federal Highway Administration in January 2005, charging the agency failed its legal responsibility to protect archaeological and historical resources.

U.S. District Court Judge Harold L. Murphy is reviewing the complaint, along with a December response from the FHWA claiming it evaluated the environmental impacts before approving the route.