Construction expected to begin in July for expanding wastewater treatment plant
Construction is targeted to begin this coming July to triple the processing capacity of Princeton’s wastewater treatment plant, SEH consulting engineer Tracy Ekola told the city council last Thursday. Completion is expected in 2012.
Ekola was giving the council an update on the project which has an estimated $11.5 million price tag for the construction. An additional cost of 15 percent of the construction total will go for engineering and design, according to Princeton City Administrator Mark Karnowski and city finance director Steve Jackson. Karnowski said he helped negotiate that engineering percent to reach a maximum cap on engineering and design costs.
Work already began a few months ago to prepare the construction site, hauling in granular fill to get the site up to grade and pack it. Minor storm water and pond drainage piping still needs to be completed at the site, said Ekola, as well as establishing final turf for disturbed soil areas.
The city will be using an $857,000 grant and a $15,118,000 loan from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Development Program to finance the cost. Ekola noted that the city can trim the construction cost of the wastewater plant expansion by $1 million by reducing the size of the planned reed beds by one-third. Reed beds will be planted to break down the sludge left over from processing the wastewater.
The schedule includes the beginning of advertising this month for bids and to award those bids in June.
Ekola said she has already received the required written comments from the USDA and expects the same shortly from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). The city can begin advertising for bids, but cannot begin construction before it receives the MPCA’s approval, Ekola noted. The MPCA doesn’t seem to have any issues with this project “that we haven’t been able to explore or clarify,” Ekola added.
After hearing Ekola’s report, the council passed a motion to approve a resolution to seek bids for the project pending final OK from officials with the USDA’s Rural Development program.
The reason for possibly reducing the size of the reed beds, according to Karnowski, is to leverage the USDA grant and loan to also finance part or all of the extension of the sewer main along Smith System Road. That project had been envisioned to start last year along with realigning part of Northland Drive and also extending a city water main west toward the intersection of Old Hwy. 18 and Northland Drive. But bureaucracy seemed to hold that up, in talking with WSB & Associates engineer Mike Nielson, who is a consultant for that project.
The road and utility project is to be completed in conjunction with the completion of the new Sterling Pointe assisted living apartments facility along Northland Drive just north of the hospital.
