FORT SMITH -- City directors Tuesday voted to award an $11.1 million contract to a Texas company to build the first phase of a water transmission line project to provide for the region's future water needs.
S.J. Louis Construction of Texas Ltd. of Mansfield, Texas, was the lowest of eight companies that bid on the project to lay six miles of 48-inch water line south from the Lake Fort Smith water treatment plant at Mountainburg to the Arkansas 282 crossing of Frog Bayou. The contract gives the company 15 months to complete the job.
The highest bid was $18.3 million by S&J Construction Inc. of Jacksonville, Ark. Kraus Construction Co. of Fort Smith was the only local bidder at $13.7 million, according to memoranda from city staff to the directors.
The project will cost an additional $839,472 for engineering services by Mickle Wagner Coleman of Fort Smith and sub-consultants, which directors also approved Tuesday.
The entire project, which includes multiple phases to lay the 48-inch line from Lake Fort Smith in Crawford County to Fort Smith, is expected to cost about $122 million and be completed around 2025, Utilities Director Steve Parke said.
The first phase of the project will be financed by bonds paid off with sales tax money Fort Smith residents approved in 2012 and 2014. Parke said directors will have to decide whether later phases will be funded by sales taxes or water rates.
The need for the larger transmission line is tied to the recent expansion of the water treatment plant at Fort Smith. The 48-inch line will be able to handle the plant's increased output that a 27-inch water line, put into service in 1936, can't accommodate, according to a 2011 memorandum from Parke.
An advantage of the the larger pipeline is it will be directed to send water to the growth area at Chaffee Crossing and the growing region south of Fort Smith. Now, water meant for the southern area has to be pumped through Fort Smith, Parke said.
According to information supplied to city directors in 2011, the project would comprise installing more than 36 miles of the pipe from Mountainburg to the growth area.
The second phase calls for laying the line from Frog Bayou to north Van Buren, with following phases being a line to the Lee Creek Reservoir northwest of Van Buren and a pipeline running from north Van Buren to the southern growth area with a separate phase to cross under the Arkansas River.
Metro on 10/08/2015