Bids for the fourth contract of the Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation project have been opened, the state Department of Transportation recently announced.

The bids pertain to paving of the new alignment of the project’s northern section from Route 15, south of Winfield, in Union County, to the existing four-lane section of Route 147, south of Montandan, in Northumberland County.

The unofficial low bid of $52.3 million was submitted by New Enterprise Stone and Lime Co., Inc.

According to PennDOT, it was one of four bids submitted by private companies in the competitive bidding process. PennDOT will review the bids and anticipates awarding a contract within the next few weeks.

Under this contract, work will begin next year, with a completion date set for 2022.

Once the paving is done, according to Dave Thompson, PennDOT spokesman, the northern section will be open to traffic.

Work on the project began in late 2015. Initially, the three active contracts for the work included construction of a new bridge over the Susquehanna River’s west branch, earthwork and structures of the new alignment of Route 147 in Northumberland County to Route 15 in Union County and earthwork and structures for the new interchange at Route 15 south of Windfield in Union County.

The southern section is in the design phase.

Thompson said three primary contracts had been planned for the southern section. The first was for mainline earthwork and structures, the second for mainline paving and the third for full construction of the Route 61 connector.

“We anticipate this fall being able to confirm out planned contracts and to also provide estimated start and completion dates for construction of the southern section,” Thompson said.