Liberty Hill approves $1.326 million for 60% design of North Fork wastewater plant; Garver outlines timeline and equipment choices

Liberty Hill’s City Council voted to approve Garver Engineering’s work order No. 7, allocating up to $1,326,253 from impact-fee funds for the 60% design phase of the North Fork wastewater treatment plant.

Jeff Meadows, Garver’s project manager, told the council the team has completed a 30% design package and will deliver that package to the city at the end of the month, followed by a roughly three‑month 60% design effort. Meadows said the design confirmation memorandum memorializes decisions on technologies and layouts and serves as the project “playbook” going into detailed design. He described recommended equipment choices after site visits, including a volute-style screw press for dewatering and an inline UV system suited to the site’s compact footprint.

Greg Saboto, also with Garver, described the 60% deliverables that will include front-end contract documents based on EJCDC standards, pre-negotiated pricing with equipment manufacturers and prepurchase documents for long‑lead items. Saboto said the design will include an opinion of probable construction cost (Class 3 OPCC) to inform budgeting and bidding.

Council members raised schedule and logistics concerns tied to WilCo’s expansion of Ronald Reagan Boulevard. Meadows and Saboto said contractors bidding the work will be provided the WilCo timeline and that contract documents will include liquidated damages to protect the city’s schedule. On storage and protection of long‑lead equipment, Garver said contract language typically requires the contractor to store and, when necessary, keep equipment conditioned to prevent corrosion.

City staff confirmed the project line item appears on page 4 of the city’s CIP and that the work would be paid from impact-fee reserves. After questions, a motion to approve the Garver work order was made, seconded and carried (5-0) with one council member absent.

The 30% design currently accommodates a buildable layout on a roughly 20‑acre donated site from Santa Rita Ranch, with an initial design 1.4 million gallons per day (MGD) capacity and planned room to expand to about 4.2 MGD. Garver said it has secured preliminary easement agreements with the developer for an access road and is preparing final easement documents and an odor-control buffer to protect future site uses.

Next steps: Garver will deliver 30% documents for an in-person review workshop, then proceed through the 60% deliverable and return to council for final design-phase authorization and future construction approvals.