Andover council awards $47.44 million contract for wastewater plant improvements

The Andover City Council voted 5-0 Tuesday to award the contract for major improvements to the city's wastewater treatment plant to Walters Morgan Construction Inc., of Manhattan, Kansas, in a not-to-exceed amount of $47,440,188.

The project follows a 2020 comprehensive study and subsequent design work led by PEC with Burns & McDonnell as a partner. Rick Lance, Andover's director of public works and utilities, told the council the work will touch nearly every facet of the existing 1977 plant to meet capacity needs and anticipated state and federal regulatory requirements. "We're basically building a new plant," Lance said during the presentation, adding the design team attempted to reuse major concrete structures where feasible to reduce cost.

The bid process drew three bidders. Lance said the low bid was about 5% over the engineer's estimate; the two lowest bids were within roughly 5% of each other. Lance and the consulting engineers told the council they…