County staff present temporary sewer bypass to let new school open as power-line clearance blocks permanent work

Bonneville County public works staff and the contractor for the 49th North widening project presented a temporary sewer bypass on the project corridor intended to let a new school make sewer connections and open on time while permanent construction is constrained.

Mark Dimond, project manager for HK Contractors, described a plan to install a temporary pressurized connection at a new manhole, install pumps and route sewer flow to the existing main to give the school time to test equipment and connect while permanent work is postponed. "We'd like to propose a sewer bypass to help ensure that the school is able to start on time," Dimond said.

The county and contractor said the permanent sewer alignment cannot be installed as planned because it would bring excavation too close to existing high-voltage transmission and distribution lines. "We have transmission lines; we have to have a 20-foot clearance," said Nathan Carden, identifying himself as regional business manager for Rocky Mountain Power. He said the construction would not meet required clearances and poses a safety risk.

Staff also said shifting the sewer alignment toward available space is limited by the presence of a buried 16-inch, high-pressure gas main and by the differing depths involved: the new sewer trench would be about 22 feet deep while the gas main sits roughly 5–6 feet below grade. Those constraints, staff said, make the bypass the most feasible short-term option to keep the school on schedule.

Cody Jackson, director of facilities maintenance for District 93, told the board the school district would pay for work that occurs on private school property (for example, filling the manhole and on-site connections) but argued the district should not be responsible for costs on public right-of-way. "Our portion would be anything that's on private land," Jackson said. He also questioned why the project, funded by a bond the district approved years earlier, had been delayed until construction now.

Contractor staff acknowledged they did not yet have a complete line-item estimate for the bypass. One contractor said the ballpark figure was "about 160," but did not specify units in the materials presented to the board; HK Contractors said it would remove the school's portion and return with revised, broken-out costs for county consideration. Hyrule Elizondo, construction manager for HK Contractors, called the bypass the only viable option to keep the school opening on schedule and said HK would rework its estimate. "We will make the adjustments to take the school's portion, remove it, and present those revised numbers," Elizondo said.

The board did not approve funding for the temporary work during the meeting. Staff said they would return with a full cost breakdown and recommended next steps once HK provides the revised estimate. The county also reported it needs one outstanding easement for Parcel 37 to complete bid packages and asked for final documents in time to issue bids by July 1.

The meeting record shows staff and contractors presenting the technical constraints, the utility citing clearances that prevent the permanent alignment, and the school district offering to cover on-site costs while disputing public-cost responsibility. The county did not adopt a funding decision; staff will return with detailed numbers and revised allocations for further consideration.