Carl Bolander & Sons Co., a St. Paul-based specialty contractor, has been awarded a $15 million contract from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to clean the debris of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. The award was announced Sunday morning.

The company, which does excavating, grading, demolition, and pile driving, also owns an industrial-waste landfill, a demolition landfill, and two construction landfills. A subsidiary, SKB Environmental, is involved in construction and demolition-waste disposal.

Bolander, founded in 1924, was family owned and operated for more than 80 years. The company did its first demolition work in the 1940s. More recently, Bolander was in charge of demolishing the buildings and clearing the site for the Lawson Software building in downtown St. Paul in 1998. Bolander took down eight grain elevators in Lakeville in 1993 and the Grain Terminal Association grain elevator on Shepard Road at Chestnut Street in St. Paul in 1990.

"I think they are capable of doing it [the cleanup work]," said Bart Anderson, vice president of special projects for Veit & Co. Inc., a specialty contractor in Rogers and one of Bolander's biggest competitors.

Curt Wercinski, a Bolander vice president, said in an interview Monday that the company is moving three 100-ton cranes to the site now and will bring in three excavators to have on hand to process any of the concrete and steel.

It appears Bolander will be asked to move all the bridge debris to a staging area so National Transportation Safety Board investigators can reassemble the twisted pieces of bridge.

According to MnDOT spokesman Kevin Gutknecht, the contract with Bolander was for time and materials. MnDOT estimates the cost will be $15 million and that the scope of the contract wasn't finalized beyond Bolander removing the bridge.

In an e-mail reply to a question about the selection process, Gutknecht wrote: "We specifically focused on contractors who use equipment in water. Interviewed four. Selection was based on experience, how quickly they could respond and what equipment they had on hand."

According to MnDOT's website, removal efforts are expected to begin later this week. The MnDOT site says Bolander will use four cranes -- one on each side of the river, one on a barge in the river and one at an unloading site. Initial efforts will be to remove the debris from the land and then focus on clearing the channel.

Founder Carl Bolander was a Swedish immigrant who specialized in grading and excavating. In 1941, Carl's son, Ivar, took over, followed by his son David in 1961. In 1983, David's wife Dorothy Bolander founded SKB Environmental. In 1994, David and Dorothy named their son Bruce CEO.

Mark Ryan was named president and chief operating officer in 2001. In 2005, Mark Ryan and Rick O'Gara, CEO, bought the company and SKB Environmental.

According to Dun & Bradstreet, Bolander & Sons posted 2005 revenues of $55.8 million.