Arkansas Online

Water treatment plant low bid exceeds estimate

DAVID SHOWERS

HOT SPRINGS — The low bid the city opened last month for the water treatment plant being built off Amity Road was $12 million more than estimated, City Manager Bill Burrough told the Hot Springs Board of Directors last week.

According to information the city provided in response to a records request, Crow Group’s $34.9 million bid was the lowest submitted for the July 26 bid opening. CDI Contractor’s $47.6 million bid was the second-lowest of the three submitted for the new plant. McKee Utility Contractor’s $54.4 million bid was the highest.

Burrough told the board roughly $25 million is unencumbered in the Lake Ouachita water supply project’s $106 million construction fund. Bids have yet to be solicited for the large-diameter finished line and other lines that will carry water from the new plant to the south and east ends of the regional water system’s 145-squaremile service area. Engineers estimated a $20 million cost for the finished lines.

“We’re going to need somewhere around $32 million to finish the project,” he told the board Saturday at its annual goals and priorities workshop. “I would couch that to about $35 million with what we’re seeing with these increases on these engineer’s estimates.

“Just what we’ve seen from January 2022 has been incredible increases in bid openings from last year to now. They’ve been creeping up, but nobody’s ever seen this. It is new territory. It is happening all across the state and all across the country.”

Burrough told the board it may have to authorize another bond issue to finish the supply project. The new rate schedule that took effect in 2018 is securing the $109 million issue the board authorized in June 2020 to bring the city’s Lake Ouachita allocation online by next year.

Minimum monthly rates for five-eighths inch meters inside the city rose from $5 to $13 over a four-year period that expired at the end of last year. They rose from $7.50 to $19 for customers outside the city. Annual 3% increases took effect at the start of the year.

Burrough said a loan may be able to pay for the treatment plant but building the plant and finished waterline may require the city to issue more revenue bonds.

“I don’t think we can do anything that’s not going to be subject to some type of rate increase,” he told the board. “If we’re looking at $35 million, we’re probably looking at $3 to get that done. That’s a napkin estimate, but it’s going to be close.”

The 2.5-mile, 36-inch diameter ductile iron line Kajacs Contractors built along Thunder and Albright roads will connect the new plant to the distribution main that runs along Central Avenue. The Little Rock firm was awarded the $4.43 million contract in September 2020.

The city upgraded an 1,800-foot segment of the Central Avenue/Highway 7 south main from 8 inches to 12 inches between Long Beach and Ashley roads, but Burrough said the main is too small for the new plant’s 15 million-gallon a day capacity.

He said it may be able to accommodate about 5 million gallons a day, a volume the city believes can fill the 3 million-gallon, elevated storage tank it brought online behind Cornerstone Marketplace in 2020. The city said last month that the tank hasn’t been filled to its 710-foot overflow elevation since it was tested two years ago.

Its distance from the Ouachita Plant, which treats water collected by the city’s intake on upper Lake Hamilton, makes it difficult to fill. The Music Mountain tank has to be valved off for water from the Ouachita Plant to reach the Cornerstone tank. Music Mountain is the most upstream of the roughly dozen tanks in the distribution system. Its pump station distributes water to the other tanks.

The 24-inch-diameter finished line will connect the new plant to the Cornerstone tank via the 20-inch main that runs along the King Expressway. The 20-inch line connects to the tank and serves as the spine of the distribution system.

Burrough told the board that the city had hoped to take the Lakeside Plant off line after the new plant is completed, but that without the finished waterline, the 75-year-old facility that treats water from the city reservoir at Lake Ricks may have to stay in operation. Its 4-million-gallon-a-day capacity will continue to be needed if the new plant’s daily production is limited to 5 million gallons.

Burrough said the Lakeside Plant has about a $1 million annual budget. The city had planned to move the Lakeside staff to the new plant.

“We have the ability with the current lines that we have in place to move around 5 to 6 million gallons a day,” Burrough, referring to volumes the current distribution system can accept from the new plant, told the board. “In 10 years it’s not going to be cheaper to finish those water lines. Either way, we’re going to have to finish the lines, whether we do it now or later.”

Burrough said daily production exceeded 20 million gallons several times last month. It reached that mark more than 50 times during the summer of 2012, pushing the Ouachita and Lakeside plants to 80% of their combined 25 million-gallon a day capacity.

The tight margin between capacity and the production required to meet maximum daily demand was one of the city’s rationales for pursuing additional supply and treatment capacity. The Arkansas Department of Health recommends water systems increase supply when maximum-day production reaches 80% of capacity.

Arkansas

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2022-08-11T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-11T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/282046215874445

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