Cady Springs project moves forward
The Cady Springs Pump Station project began in 2003 and has had a difficult time moving forward to completion since. With the only part of the project finished being the tank itself, it looks like the rest of the project is getting some new life.
After being bid and re-bid, the project is now being worked on in phases. With a deadline of December 2020 for the project’s Proposition 84 grant, city staff recommended proceeding with an award of the current bid from RaPiD Construction so that significant portions of the project can be completed this year.
Back in June, the city council provided direction to its staff after the project was re-bid. The plan was to unbundle the project and pursue phased projects for the pump station and piping separately.
The intent of the unbundling was to accomplish a less expensive project initially, and to take advantage of a more conductive bidding environment within the industry, when compared to last year’s initial bid of the entire project.
The bid from RaPiD was considerably higher than the anticipated costs as determined based on the Dyer Engineering estimate last fall.
The project, which is significantly underfunded from the available grant funds, will require supplemental money from the city.
The grant money available for the portion of water main replacement between Johnstonville and Harris Drive is around $1.5 million, leaving about $640,000 remaining to complete the pump station project.
Also, an additional $500,000 would be needed to complete the connections to the Cady tank, make all under highway connections and reconfigure the pipe at the Harris Drive tank.
The project’s one million gallon tank will offer the city 20 percent more storage capacity, bringing total storage to 5.5 million gallons.
This will not only bolster the amount of available water for the community, those at the city also see it as providing possible fire protection.
However, since the city sought consultation to separate its natural gas and water enterprise bonds, there may be an almost $500,000 yearly savings from at least one of the funds, leaving room for the possibility to finish the project on time.
Councilmember Brian Wilson said the extra savings from the water and natural gas enterprise bonds could be used to bring back savings to customers, asking public works director Dan Newton to bring back the idea at a future meeting.