Swan plan sewer bids come in lower than expected
?BROWNSVILLE — The Brownsville Municipal Authority Tuesday awarded the contract for construction of new sewer lines in the Swan plan.
The low bidder was Fleming-Walker Inc. of Portersville, with a bid of $791,810, well under the $1.2 million to $1.4 million anticipated for the project.
Ten bids were received for the work, ranging from Fleming-Wlaker’s low bid to a high of $1,530,046,50 submitted by Guyer Brothers of New Enterprise. The bids were opened April 6 and were reviewed by Fayette Engineering.
“We submitted all the post-bid documents to the USDA for approval,” said Bill Johnson, the project manager from Fayette Engineering.
“The USDA authorized the owner to issue a notice to proceed to the contractor.”
Johnson said the project will serve 60 customers, including Patsy Hillman Park. Despite the relatively small size of the project, it attracted interest from a wider geographic area than Johnson had anticipated.
“We had guys from the whole western part of the state, a couple in the central part of the state and one out of Ohio,” Johnson said. “A year and a half ago, I probably could have told you who the bidders would be based on the dollar amount of the job, and who the first five bidders would be.”
In other matters, the Brownsville Municipal Authority’s superintendent Jim Knisley said he is trying to locate an influx of storm water coming into the sewer system around Third and Fourth streets in Hiller. “The downspouts are out, so I don’t know where it’s coming from,” Knisley said.
Knisley said that the old storm sewers are located above the sanitary sewer lines in that area and he is concerned the water could be coming from that source.
Johnson said that the sewerage plant treated an average of 500,000 gallons of waste a day in January.
“For the past two months it’s been 1.3 million and the high days correspond with rain days,” Johnson said.
Knisley said he would like to bring in a company to run a camera through the lines to find infiltration points.
“Every dollar you spend on camera work, you will save in treatment costs,” Johnson said. “We’re talking a difference of 800,000 gallons.
The motion was made to camera the sewer lines as soon as possible.