Hazen Council debates televising 12,000 feet of sewer main to narrow bids

Hazen — City engineer Jared told the council that bids for the sanitary sewer improvement project came in higher than anticipated because contractors included allowances for unknown ‘‘spot repairs’’ in areas where the existing televising footage is seven years old. Jared said contractors bid to cover unknowns and recommended televising about 12,000 feet of older main to clarify the scope.

"We had to make some assumptions," Jared said while explaining that the older televising data could hide collapsed or offset clay-tile pipe sections. He gave the council a Pipe Detectives quote of $18,175 to televise the 12,000 feet within about 30 days of notice to proceed.

Council members asked whether the televising cost would pay off through lower overall construction costs. A council member noted the project estimate had been roughly $2.85 million and current bids were about 10% higher; Jared said televising could show whether the project is closer to $3.0 million, $3.1 million or $3.2 million and could enable better negotiation with the low bidder.

After extended discussion about the risks and benefits of paying to remove uncertainty, a council member moved to hold the bids and proceed with televising of the older mains. Jared said he would contact Pipe Detectives to schedule the work and that the televising results would be brought back to the council to inform whether to accept, reject or rebid the project.

The motion directed staff to obtain televising and keep the bids active while the city collects current footage; the transcript records the motion and subsequent discussion but does not include a formal detailed tally of the final roll-call result for that motion within the provided excerpt.

Next steps: staff will contact Pipe Detectives to televise the listed mains, report findings, and return to the council with revised scope and bid recommendations.