The slow march of making Interstate 45 at least four lanes in each direction to Galveston continues, with a company that’s already rebuilt much of the freeway poised to build the next segment from League City to Dickinson.

Williams Brothers Construction was the apparent low bidder when proposals were opened Thursday in Austin on the widening project from FM 518 – Main Street in League City – to FM 517, about 3.4 miles south. The company bid $121.7 million for the job, about 6.4 percent higher than the $115 million state officials estimated.

The bid is subject to state approval, said Danny Perez, spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation in Houston. If accepted later this year, Perez said construction could begin in early 2017.

The widening will include adding a northbound and southbound main lane to the existing six-lane freeway, and two lane frontage roads in each direction.

It’s familiar work for Williams Brothers, which has been widening I-45 southward from Houston for the past five years. Broken into four projects, the company has already made the freeway either 10 or 8 lanes from Nyack Road to Medical Center Drive. The rebuilding thus far has cost $211.8 million, based on TxDOT’s latest updates and current estimates of ongoing work.

Williams Brothers also was the low bidder when TxDOT reopened proposals to build new direct connections at Loop 610 and I-45 south of downtown Houston. The project, once awarded to Tradeco Infrastructura, was rebid when Tradeco defaulted on a handful of projects and pulled their crews from the job sites. Williams Brothers will be paid an estimated $72.8 million for the new ramps.

Much more work along I-45 looms on the horizon. TxDOT, which has planned for more than a decade to widen the freeway, has eight more projects planned to widen the freeway to 61st Street in Galveston. Based on current estimates, state officials expect to spend $801.6 million expanding the freeway, including a new interchange at the Texas City Wye where I-45, Texas 146 and Texas 197 converge.