Washington County Water Project Delayed
Bids Higher than Estimates
Last updated Friday, July 28, 2006 9:55 PM CDT in News
By Dan Craft
The Morning News
FAYETTEVILLE — Rural water won’t flow through taps in southeastern Washington County any time soon, county officials said Friday.
Construction on the Southeast Water project was scheduled to begin this fall, but four bids received for Phase One construction work all significantly overshot the $3.3 million budget, said Wayne Blankenship, the county grant administrator.
The bids ranged between $5.1 million and $7 million.
“Until we get this worked out, everything is up in the air,” Blankenship said. “The plans are in, the permits are there. We’re ready to start construction whenever we secure additional funds.”
The construction estimates were prepared more than two years ago, and rising prices since then contributed to the problem, said Jerry Hunton, county judge.
“This almost seems normal anymore, because it takes so long between when the costs are figured and when the bids are let out,” Hunton said. “We’ll get with the state and the federal folks and see what additional funding we can get.”
The project must be fully funded before construction can begin, according to state and federal funding rules.
The three-phase project, approved in 2004, is planned to run rural water to an estimated 750 users in the southeast quadrant of Washington County.
“This is disappointing. We’ve already been waiting 10 years or more for this to become a reality,” said Jeremy McAtee of the Bunyard community near Winslow. “We were so happy to hear they’d be starting construction this year, but that’s just how it goes, I guess.”
The funding and construction of the project is supervised by the county rural development authority, and will be managed by the Washington Water Authority when complete.
The full three-phase project was estimated at about $10 million. County officials tried several times to get the whole project funded at once before breaking it into phases in 2003.
Phase 2 cannot be started until Phase 1 is finished for two reasons. First, the funding for Phase 2 cannot be approved until Phase 1 is operational; second, the water that will run in the Phase 2 area will be transmitted through the Phase 1 lines.
The full project could take as many as 10 years to complete, county officials have estimated. Construction of Phase 1 is expected to last almost a year once a contract is approved.
Reader Comments (No comments posted.)
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsibility of their authors. The Morning News does not review comments before their publication, nor do we guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by our comment policy. If you see a comment that violates our policy, please notify the web editor.
Not already registered?
