Bids have come in to rebuild a difficult stretch of road in Thousand Oaks, and it looks like the city is getting a bargain price.

The deteriorated Norwegian grade, a narrow, winding section of Moorpark Road between Calle Contento and Santa Rosa Road, will be upgraded for $1 million less than was previously expected.

On Tues., July 13, the City Council was expected to approve giving the project to C.A. Rasmussen Inc. of Valencia for $1.5 million, 40 percent less than the cost forecast by the city engineer.

“They’re a company that’s been around for a long time,” said public works director Mark Watkins.

C.A. Rasmussen’s headquarters were in Simi Valley for 30 years before the company moved to Valencia in 2007. Its previous projects include the 23/118 freeways and the 118 Freeway widening.

The money saved, most of it from gas tax money, will be used for improvements on other roads in the city, Watkins said.

The asphalt along the grade will be ground up and mixed with a stabilizing agent, such as concrete before it’s replaced.

A new guard rail and drainage improvements are also a part of the planned upgrade. The city will receive $800,000 from a federal safety grant for the guard rails, Watkins said.

If the work goes as expected, the road will be shut down from the end of August through the end of October.

The closure will include the road from the Conejo Valley YMCA at 4031 Moorpark Road north to Santa Rosa Road. The city of Moorpark, California Lutheran University, the police and fire departments, and the YMCA will be kept informed of possible impacts created by the closure.

The project could start sometime this summer, Spurgin said.

In the 1960s, the city inherited responsibility for that stretch of road. The two-lane grade used to be state Route 23, the only connection between Thousand Oaks and Moorpark before the 23 Freeway was built.