Berlin Town Council members unanimously selected a contractor to handle the relocation of a water main on Harrison Avenue.
Courtesy photo
By Charlene Sharpe, Associate Editor
Berlin Town Council members have unanimously selected a contractor to handle the relocation of a water main on Harrison Avenue.
Goody Hill Groundwork will relocate a water main that is currently under the new Berlin Beer Company.
“We would like to move it and get it in the right-of-way,” Jamey Latchum, the town’s water resources director, said during a meeting March 11.
In January, the council approved a request for proposals for the relocation of the roughly 100-year-old water main that runs under the former Southern States building at the intersection of Broad Street and Harrison Avenue. Because the property is currently under construction as Berlin Beer Company prepares to open, town staff said this was the ideal time to abandon the aged water main currently under the building and place a new water main under Harrison Avenue, where it should be.
Latchum told officials this week the town received four bids in response to the RFP. He said Davis, Bowen & Friedel, the engineering firm the town works with, recommended awarding the project to the low bidder, Goody Hill Groundwork for $156,725. While that exceeds what the town had planned to spend on the project, staff said $36,725 could be transferred from the Powelltown Avenue wellhouse project. While that project is still on the horizon, Latchum said he didn’t want to do it during the summer months, as that well was the town’s largest one and water is used heavily during the summer.
“I don’t want to lose that during the busier months,” Latchum said, adding that he hoped to put that project out for bid in May and have the work done after the summer in the new fiscal year.
Latchum said he thought Goody Hill presented a fair price for the Harrison Avenue work and that he didn’t think there was anything that had been left out of the proposal. As far as the timeline, he said if the council approved the bid award he hoped work would begin within 30 days and be complete by May 1.
Road closures related to the project are not expected to exceed one day.
“Other than that everything’s going to be directional drilled so it’s going to be very minimal,” Latchum said.
The council voted unanimously to move forward and award the project to Goody Hill Groundwork.