A competitive bid opening for Ashland’s wastewater treatment plant upgrades on July 17 returned an apparent low bid from Judy Construction for “just a little under a $100,000,000,” city staff said at the Board of City Commissioners meeting July 24. City and consultant representatives said the project is the final piece needed to comply with the city’s combined sewer overflow (CSO) consent judgment and that state loan and authorization steps remain before construction can begin.

The bid package covers wet-weather storage, headworks upgrades, new clarifiers, a new dewatering building and conversion of existing carousel basins to aeration basins, officials said. A Strand Associates representative told commissioners the design aims to capture “equal to or greater than 93% of all the water coming through the system.”

The project is proceeding under a $44,000,000 State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan that requires KIA authorization before the city may award a contract, Strand said. “We have an SRF loan, a $44,000,000 loan that we have to provide some things to KIA before they can give us authorization to actually award the contract,” the Strand representative said. City staff said they are preparing the package of items KIA requires and expect to submit them within about a week.

Strand described the procurement as competitive: five contractors submitted bids and the results were “spread very evenly,” the consultant said. Strand and city staff said the lowest proposal came in lower than some earlier expectations that had anticipated a price above $100 million.

Timeline estimates provided at the meeting place a contract-award window within the 60-day award period following the bid opening. Staff told commissioners a notice to proceed could be issued in the fall, with heavy on-site mobilization and machinery appearing in November or December, and an optimistic project completion targeted for spring 2029 if permitting and financing proceed as expected.

Commissioners and staff emphasized the long-running nature of the effort. A project presenter outlined a timeline of work stretching back to 2019 and described the program as “a long, basically, you’re talking 10 years to end up with a sewer treatment plant,” noting permit and planning milestones over that period.

No contract was awarded at the July 24 meeting. City staff said the next formal step is to obtain KIA’s authorization to award; only after KIA’s action would the commission receive an ordinance or contract authorization to approve and give a contractor notice to proceed.

If KIA authorizes the award and the commission approves the contract, Strand said construction sequencing will begin with contractor mobilization and then phased onsite work. Project elements described at the meeting include wet-weather storage, headworks upgrades, clarifiers, dewatering, and aeration basin conversion.

The city has been funding CSO collection work in prior years, staff said, and noted the upgrade is driven by the consent judgment requiring additional treatment capacity and overflow controls.

The city plans to return to the commission with the KIA authorization and a contract ordinance for a future meeting; until then no award or change to the procurement status will be final.