Tea, South Dakota — Construction on the water system that is still hoped to provide Missouri River Aquifer water to Sheldon, Sibley, Hull, Sioux Center and other towns in the region is moving slowly forward.
Lewis & Clark Regional Water System’s board of directors recently awarded two pipeline contracts. The low bids for both projects were significantly lower than what was originally budgeted.
The first contract was awarded earlier this year to Winter Brothers Underground of Sioux Falls for $2,950,000. This is to construct two segments of the Madison service line – five miles of 16-inch pipe northwest of Sioux Falls and five miles of 14-inch pipe east of Madison. These segments are part of the “wheeling plan” that, along with utilizing infrastructure in between from Minnehaha Community Water Corp and Big Sioux Community Water System, will allow Madison to access up to a million gallons of water a day, according to pipeline officials. They say construction is expected to begin in September, and June 2017 is the substantial completion deadline. “The low bid was a whopping 40% less than what was budgeted, so we were very happy with the result,” said Executive Director Troy Larson.
The second contract was awarded on July 28 to Carstensen Contracting of Pipestone, MN for $9,202,317. This is to construct the line from Magnolia to Lincoln Pipestone RWS’s connection two miles east of Adrian. Preliminary construction activities are expected to begin this fall with pipeline construction starting in the spring. November 2017 is the substantial completion deadline. “The low bid was 22% less than what was budgeted, so another really good result. We continue to benefit from a favorable bidding environment,” said Larson.
