Swan plan sewer project awaiting final approvals to start
?BROWNSVILLE — What appears to be just a technical problem with the official name of the bonding company continues to delay the start of construction of the new sewer system for the Swan plan in Luzerne Township.
The project is being done by the Brownsville Municipal Authority. Bids for the project were opened in April.
The low bidder was Fleming-Walker Inc. of Portersville, with a bid of $791,810, well under the $1.4 million anticipated for the project.
Bill Johnson of Fayette Engineering said last month he expected technical issues regarding the bond company used by the contractor to be resolved in a matter of days, but as of the June meeting held Tuesday, the issue was still unresolved.
Johnson said the problem stems from an inexact name for the bond company listed on the bid documents so it doesn’t show up on the website used to verify approved companies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program is providing funding for the project and will not close on the funding package until the bonding issue is settled.
Johnson said he told the authority members that the problem should be resolved by the end of this week.
“I hope we can be there moving dirt and putting pipe in the ground within a month,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the municipal authority also authorized him to develop a plan to take care of storm water infiltration in some of the authority’s sewer lines in another area of Luzerne Township. Johnson said storm water is getting into the lines along Luzerne Road, Short Street and random sites along Bull Run Road. In all, about 800 linear feet of sewer line needs to be replaced, Johnson said.
“It’s nobody’s fault. Forty-five- to 50-year-old pipe needs to be repaired once in a while,” Johnson said. “Average daily flows have increased because of the cataclysmic failures in some of these pipes. You can see it in the electric bills at the pump stations.”
He estimated the cost of the project at just under $96,000 and said it should take about two weeks to complete. Johnson said survey crews are currently on site gathering the information needed to prepare the bid specifications.
Johnson said he expects to have the project ready to go out for bids in July.