Liberty Hill council approves Garver for North Fork wastewater plant design after striking escalation clause

Liberty Hill City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a professional services work order with engineering firm Garver to produce a 30% preliminary design for the North Fork Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The council approved Resolution 2025-R-039 and work order No. 5 in a motion that set a not-to-exceed price of $1,350,485 and removed a previously proposed automatic 6% annual escalation clause for unused portions of the contract. The motion passed 7-0.

Garver representatives told council the phase covers project administration, a design-confirmation report and 30% design deliverables, topographic and site survey, geotechnical investigations (up to seven borings), and environmental review including wetland delineation and endangered-species screening. “Garver will design a facility that can treat up to 1.4 MGD as part of phase 1, and the facility is planned to be readily expandable to 4.2 MGD annual average daily flow,” said Greg Swoboda, Garver’s Central Texas water team lead.

Jeff Meadows, Garver water facility lead, said the 30% phase should take about four months to complete, after which the firm would return for final design, permitting and bidding. “Following the completion of that phase, we’ll come back and bring phase 2 which will be final design, and construction administration services,” Meadows said.

Councilmembers raised questions about contracting safeguards. One council member said the 6% escalation language felt automatic and could increase costs if a project was shelved; Garver’s presenters said the clause is intended to protect against long-term inflation if a project is put on hold and that they have not exercised the clause on past work. Garver representatives told the council the clause could be struck in future work orders and staff offered to amend the work order for this item.

Funding for the North Fork project will include a WIFIA (Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act) credit as part of a package the city expects to use for multiple projects; Garver said the initial design phase will be funded from the city wastewater fund balance. The firm noted the design flows were derived from the city’s master plan and that some effluent will be permitted for Type 1 reuse for purple-pipe applications.

The council’s approval authorizes Garver to proceed with the preliminary engineering services described in the work order. The next procedural steps are submission of the 30% design, a city workshop to review the design and comments, and then later approval of a final design/phase 2 contract and associated construction procurement.