County authorizes right-of-way permit for North Platte 18-inch sewer trunk main

The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners voted to authorize the vice chair to sign a right-of-way permit allowing the City of North Platte to install an 18-inch sewer trunk main through county right-of-way. The authorization passed by roll call with four ayes: Friends, Weems, Heagley and Woodruff.

The permit covers a trunk sewer roughly a quarter-mile in length that city staff said will run from Echo north to Walker and west toward Buffalo Bill. "What the project we're doing is a sewer install of a sewer trunk main...it's an 18 inches," said Brent Berkland, identified in the meeting as the City of North Platte city engineer. He said the installation will be deep — roughly 10 to 12 feet in places — and will require dewatering and trench safety measures.

Berkland and county commissioners discussed access impacts and construction timing. He said the contractor will stage work in sections so residents can reach homes but through traffic will be detoured: "They're going to dig pipe, backfill, and keep moving. So the local people can get into their homes, but there won't be through traffic." Berkland said the contractor, Van Kirk Construction of Sutton, expects to work in 3–4 week sections on the Echo segment and move faster on portions where the trench is shallower.

On timing, Berkland said the city hoped to begin work as soon as permits and deliveries were in place: "They're, right now they're looking at, if we can get everything working, that they would probably start doing some of the work this week, or next week...they were probably in the 6 week, 6 to 8 week time frame...so if they started roughly now, they would be roughly July 1." He cautioned the schedule depends on weather and how dewatering proceeds.

Commissioners confirmed the county roads staff had reviewed the plan in a pre-construction meeting. Berkland said the city will coordinate with county staff for day-to-day work and that pre-construction outreach letters have been sent to property owners along the route and to the parish board at Ann Seton Church, which he said had been engaged because of driveway and access concerns.

The approved motion authorized signatures on the right-of-way permit submitted by the City of North Platte for sewer construction; the meeting record did not specify the motion mover or seconder by name. The county vote was recorded as four ayes and no nays.

The county did not adopt additional conditions on the permit during the meeting. County staff and the city engineer said they will coordinate staging, traffic control, and resident access as construction proceeds.