The Hormel Institute expansion is getting off the ground, as soon as state officials release bonding money set aside for the project.

The Austin Port Authority approved a series of bids Tuesday at a special session meeting on everything from site work and concrete to conveying. Yet the state of Minnesota has yet to give area officials $13.5 million set aside in 2012 for the project after legislators approved language changes earlier this year to the way Institute officials could spend that money.

“It’s coming any day now,” Project manager Jon Erichson said.

Low bidders were accepted for a series of seven bids on expansion sub-projects, all of which were within engineer estimates, Erichson said.

Two bid projects weren’t approved by the port authority, however. No one had bid to supply steel for the project — one company apparently sent a bid to the expansion contractor’s office, rather than the port authority, which doesn’t count.

And Hawk and Son’s Inc., the low bidder on the project to install steel, asked to be let out of its $460,000 bid after the company realized it had made a mistake in calculating its bid. The next highest bid on the project is $690,000 from Danny’s Construction, Inc.

Erichson said project officials have asked the state to weigh in on whether the bid withdrawal can move forward. If so, expansion officials could award the bid to Danny’s Construction, or even rebid the project entirely.

Expansion officials broke ground on the Institute at the end of May. The project is scheduled for completion in July 2015.