Stowater awards $24.97 million contract to upgrade water treatment plant chemical systems

The Stowater Utilities Authority voted 5-0 on Dec. 16, 2024, to award a $24,968,000 unit-price contract to Crossland Heavy Construction Inc. for chemical-system upgrades at the city’s water treatment plant and to authorize total construction expenditures of $28,000,000.

City utilities staff said the project will replace several aging chemical feed systems, install corrosion inhibitors and construct a second chemical building paid in part with a $5 million congressional grant. "Some of these facilities were installed all the way back when the plant was built in 1985 ... they're looking a little tired," said Chris (utilities staff member), who presented the bid results and scope to trustees.

The project scope includes replacing the lime system, replacing the CO2 feed system, making improvements to chlorine and ozone systems, installing sodium hydroxide for water stability and installing a sodium hexametaphosphate system for corrosion inhibition. Staff said portions of the work will be housed in a new chemical building and that the improvements are intended to prepare the plant to move 24 million gallons per day (MGD) in the future.

Staff reported three competitive bidders and described the bids as close — within about 2% of each other and within about 4% of the engineer’s estimate. "Crossland Heavy Construction is already out there doing a similar size project ... so we are very pleased that they were the low bidder," Chris said. Bidders named in the presentation included Walters, Morgan and Crossland Heavy Construction; the low bid from Crossland was listed as $24,968,000.

The authority also approved a professional services agreement with East Breeze Consulting LLC for inspection services for $463,419, project testing and an approximately $2.5 million contingency. Staff said the $35,000 testing line will cover concrete compressive-strength testing, welding inspection and compaction tests, and that East Breeze will perform quality-control oversight to ensure work is built to specification. In response to a trustee question, Chris said the larger testing and quality-control work ensures the city "gets our money's worth of the $28,000,000 contract."

Funding for the work was listed as $17,800,000 from a Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) loan, a $5,000,000 EPA congressional-directed grant and about $5,100,000 from the water fund. Staff said the DWSRF loan is part of a larger $37,000,000 financing package that also covers earlier pump station work and that the congressional-directed grant was obtained through federal appropriations processes.

Trustees approved the staff recommendation — awarding the contract to Crossland, approving the East Breeze agreement and appropriating the funds — by voice vote, 5-0. The authority approved its consent docket earlier in the meeting, also by a 5-0 vote, and then adjourned the Stowater Utilities Authority meeting by a 5-0 vote.

Votes at a glance: Consent docket — approved 5-0. Award Crossland Heavy Construction contract and related funding/agreements — approved 5-0. Motion to adjourn — approved 5-0.

Officials noted the work builds on a recently approved SCADA master plan and a concurrent Lake McMurtry water storage project; staff said filter-basin work remains as a later phase.