Inspection of the old U.S. 80 bridge has become a more competitive process than in years past, as bridge commissioners mulled offers from two engineering firms for the bridge’s annual checkup.

Two firms, HNTB Corporation and G.E.C., have offered to rate the bridge’s stability for 2009. Kansas City-based HNTB has studied the structure’s stability and provided other engineering advice since the bridge opened in 1930. Baton Rouge-based G.E.C. is the engineer of record for the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, between suburban New Orleans and communities north of the lake, and for multiple infrastructure projects in south Louisiana.

Job cuts attributed to the economy at HNTB earlier in the year claimed the firm’s senior technical adviser for structures, Rudy McLellan, a key contributor to the old bridge’s annual report who was hired as an adviser by G.E.C. shortly after his departure from HNTB.

Commissioners have kept HNTB as its primary structural contact during emergencies such as barge strikes, but has courted G.E.C. since McLellan’s hiring. In August, the five-member panel OK’d retaining the company as a backup option of sorts for such instances and more. On Wednesday, the commission approved hiring the company to design a repair plan for eight cracked angle-iron supports under a section of the bridge’s rail tracks on the Mississippi side.

“I don’t think we’re compelled to sign either one today,” chairman Robert Moss said as commissioners tabled the matter until next month. “G.E.C. is in the picture because of Rudy working for them.”

HNTB’s chief structural engineer, Steve Hague, appeared before the commission Wednesday with the company’s bridge department manager, Gordon Glass, who was recommended as a primary point of contact with the company. No vote was taken to affect the company’s standing with the panel, but Moss told the men he would seek more information from HNTB on why the company chose to include McLellan, a licensed professional and mechanical engineer in nationwide staff reductions the company said in March equaled 6 percent.

As with the annual inspection, the repair work will be done as a professional service contract, not subject to competitive bidding. ABMB Engineers Inc., the county’s appointed engineering firm, has also supplied its services to the bridge, particularly with work to stop soil erosion and sloughing. Maximum payments on the rail repair work and annual inspection are $6,878 and $15,000, respectively.

Tracks will be closed to train traffic for at least a day once work begins to repair the rail supports, bridge superintendent Herman Smith said.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com