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Mebane advances $93M wastewater plant expansion, tentatively awards $81.94M construction contract
Summary
Council adopted a bond resolution to finance the WARF expansion, approved a capital budget amendment and made a tentative $81,940,000 contract award to Crowder Construction (pending LGC and state approvals); the project will expand the plant to 4 MGD with infrastructure sized for future 6 MGD and includes ARPA and state-directed grants.
The Mebane City Council on Oct. 7 adopted a bond order and financing resolution to advance a major expansion of the WARF wastewater treatment plant and tentatively awarded the construction contract to Crowder Construction for $81,940,000 pending Local Government Commission and state approvals.
City staff and McGill Associates presented the project as an expansion from the existing capacity toward a 4-million-gallon-per-day facility with yard piping and clarifiers sized to allow future expansion to 6 MGD. McGill’s project engineer described adding grit and denitrification filter systems and reusing portions of the existing plant to reduce cost. The total project budget presented to council was approximately $93,000,000.
Finance staff explained the proposed funding mix: approximately $67.3 million in bond proceeds if the council moves forward with the financing, an American Rescue Plan allocation ($11.925M), a state-directed grant ($2.055M), system development fees, and transfers from the utility fund. The bond sale was scheduled for Oct. 9 with expected closing Oct. 30, and staff said construction could begin as early as January 2025 with a roughly three-year construction timeframe.
The project received four qualified bids; McGill recommended the low bidder with a base construction sum of $81,940,000. Council adopted the bond resolution and moved to make the tentative contract award subject to approvals from the Local Government Commission and the Division of Water Infrastructure.
Council members thanked staff and McGill for the work and noted recent weather events as a reminder of the importance of resilient water and sewer infrastructure. Next steps are finalization of financing, LGC approvals and the contract award process.
