Hampstead updates water main construction schedule; treatment-plant bid window opens

Town staff told the Hampstead Town Council that construction has begun on a multi-phase project to centralize and modernize the town water system, and that bids for treatment-plant construction will be opened this week. “Construction has begun on the new water mains,” Town Manager Jim Rolle said during the monthly staff report. Rolle said the first segment is under Main Street, running from the pump house at Melvin Miller Park to just north of Greenmount Station and is scheduled for completion in early October. He said the second main — from Murphy’s Run Court over to Upper Ford Lane and to the existing North Carroll Water Treatment Plant — is expected to be finished in early November, and crews will then start a longer third section along Dakota Road, Panther Drive and up Shiloh Road that is scheduled to take more than three months. Rolle said the overall project includes five pipeline sections; bids for two water treatment-plant construction contracts are due this Friday and will be opened at 2 p.m. The meeting packet included an engineer’s estimated cost of $20,400,000 for treatment-plant construction. Meeting remarks contained inconsistent phrasing about whether that figure covered two plants or more (the engineer’s estimate as read in the meeting said $20,400,000 but the transcript phrasing varied), and town staff should be consulted for the official bid summary and engineer’s estimate breakdown. Ben, speaking for utilities operations, reported recent usage and supply notes tied to incidents outside town: average usage in August was 364,000 gallons per day and so far in September about 382,000 gallons per day; the September figure was elevated after town water supplies (about 230,000 gallons over two days) supported local fire companies battling a large hay-bale fire in nearby Baltimore County, he said. Ben also reported rainfall totals (0.73 inches in August, 0.94 inches so far in September) and said the county drought status as of Sept. 4 classified the area as “abnormally dry.” Discussion was informational; no formal council action was taken on the water construction contracts at the meeting. Town staff advised bidders that construction-contract bids for the water treatment plants will be opened at 2 p.m. on the stated day and that the town expects multiple bidders.