Seward will soon seek bids for the construction of a $60 million wastewater treatment plant, the largest infrastructure project in the city’s history.
That estimated total cost may increase before the Seward City Council selects a construction company from among a handful of regional companies that are expected to submit construction bids in the coming weeks for a possible council decision in December.
City Administrator Greg Butcher said Oct. 22 the city may ask the firm it contracts to create the plans for the plant to review estimated cost once more this calendar year.
The city has a $50.5 million State Revolving Loan at 1.4% interest to help finance the project. Seward residents and businesses have also seen wastewater rates increased to help pay for the project.
Butcher said the DARI, LLC, plant now under construction in the Rail Park will be the city’s largest utility customer, and the community will benefit from having it come online with the new wastewater plant as a paying customer. Without it in the works, the city might have planned the facility for less capacity, but current customers would have been expected to pay for more of the untapped capacity any plan includes to assure longevity.
City Engineer Mike Oneby said all bidders will be required to attend a pre-bid meeting in Seward with local officials and the consultants who have created an 1,800-page document of project plans and specifications.
“We will have to gird ourselves,” he told council members as he outlined the scope and potential cost of the construction project in the current economy. “Hopefully, the supply of diesel will ease.”
But the economy may also make contractors “hungry,” which could make the bidding more competitive.
“It is actually fairly extensive. It is a fairly large project,” Oneby told city council members who approved plans to advertise the project in the Seward County Independent and online.
Five structures in the existing wastewater treatment plant are expected to be reused. Oneby said those 50-year-old structures should last another 20 to 40 years.
Other parts of the existing plant are to be removed as part of the construction project.
The city in March leased and has since installed a temporary wastewater treatment facility to serve the city for 24 months at a cost of $2.02 million.
City Administrator Greg Butcher said Oneby has spent more than seven years helping to plan this project with the city, and prior to working for the city was on the consulting team at Olsson Engineering that helped to create the plans.
Seward Water and Wastewater Director Brandon Koll and his staff have also been part of the planning, Butcher said.
The project is likely the largest one to be undertaken in the city “in our lifetimes,” Butcher told the council.
“We look forward to getting started on it, but we want to do it the right way,” he said.
