The Indiana Department of Transportation has awarded a construction contract for nearly four miles of Interstate 69 in Monroe County between Harmony Road and a Branch of Clear Creek.

The winning bid of $57.5 million was 16 percent below the engineer's cost estimate.

E.S. Wagner Company, of Toledo, Ohio, submitted the best and lowest bid among seven companies bidding on this contract.

Sixty-five miles of the highway between Evansville and the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center are currently under construction and scheduled to open at the end of this year.

The 27 miles between Crane and Bloomington are on schedule to open by the end of 2014.