City alternate water line project changes scope

The Graham City Council approved Graham City Manager Eric Garretty to negotiate and conclude a professional service agreement with Parkhill, Smith, and Cooper Engineers for engineering and design services to modify the scope of work for the proposed alternate city water line project.

Garretty said Thursday, Dec. 8 that the original alternate water line project, estimated at $4.5 million, has increased in cost substantially requiring a change in the scope of the project.

“I was at a meeting where the cost estimate had gone up to $8.3 million. If you recall, when (the council) talked about this back in April and May, the original cost that we talked about was ($4.5 million) and then they said it had gone up and now it was north of $8 million. The plan was, we were going to find the money from somewhere, and somewhere hasn’t really materialized. So in my opinion, the project in its current form is beyond our financial capacity,” he said. “This was the original line that we talked about going behind the dam. So we kind of dropped back on it and figured out what we could bring to you that we think could at least allow us to work toward this alternate water capacity. One of the most critical segments that we’re planning (is to) have an alternate line that comes from the water plant out to (Hwy.) 61, and then heads down the road (and) winds up at the Fireman’s Park. The line there is critical, it’s aging, we’ve had to repair it a couple of times and then there are some segments right there after you pass the Fort Belknap pump station.”

Garretty proposed the council to approve engineering and design services not to exceed $60,000 related to the new scope of work with the project. He said the new project will help with the immediate issues.

“So we’re asking them to go back, tweak what we have, that’s the $60,000, to come up with that as a separate project, figuring out exactly what we can do. What that would mean is, if right there at the plant, the 24-inch line that’s there that carries every drop of water to the city, you don’t get water in the city unless it’s flowing through that portion of line, if it were to blow out and be unrepairable for multiple days, when we conclude this project, we can simply switch over to that line and we keep on supplying water. We see this as a reasonable alternative to the original project,” he said. “The proposed new project is a new line from the water treatment plant out to Hwy. 61 and subsequently runs about another 2,500 feet. It’ll mitigate the immediate issue of the aging 24-inch main (water line).”

For the full story, see the Saturday, Dec. 10 edition of The Graham Leader.