High inflation for construction materials and a discrepancy in the low bid has prompted the Green River City Council to reject bids for the city’s planned wastewater treatment plant.
The city received two bids for the project that exceeded the $26.7 million loan it secured for the project. COP Construction LLC, a regional construction company with offices in Wyoming, Utah and Montana, submitted a bid for $42,550,000, while Bodell Construction of Salt Lake City submitted a bid for $36,272,850.
According to Council documents, Bodell Construction’s bid has a discrepancy in its Disadvantaged Business Enterprise documents that disqualified it for concurrence from the funding agency, Wyoming’s State Lands and Investments Board. The loan was originally approved December 2019.
Mark Westenskow, the city’s public works director, said the city will have to go back and rework the plans and find savings through redesigning aspects of the plant. He said the city will need to seek additional grants and sources of funding to fund the project. However, there is a sense of time running out as the current wastewater treatment system is long past its anticipated lifespan.
The system, which utilizes sewer lagoons to treat wastewater, had its last major upgrade in 1989. Because of the antiquated nature of the facility, repairs can be costly as replacement parts need to be custom built because they are no longer widely produced.
While speaking to the Council in 2019, Finance Director Chris Meats said the city faces a potential catastrophe the longer it relies on the current wastewater treatment system.
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