The Kenai City Council adopted a resolution that would authorize a construction contract award for the Mission Avenue Water Main Improvements Project. A formal invitation bid was released on March 10 for the project, which is intended to isolate a section of water main that is nearing the bluff’s edge due to ongoing bluff erosion.
Three bids were made, but the city chose Foster’s Construction, which was determined to have the lowest responsive and responsible bid. Funding resides within the Water and Sewer Capital Project Fund to cover the $125,600 costs to issue a purchase order as well as a $10,000 contingency for the processing of potential change orders.
Scott Curtin, the city’s Director of Public works told council:
“This is a huge priority project for us. This is one of those items that there’s some risk involved with this. We’re fortunate that we know about it now when it’s not to be surprised later, but as we all know, bluff erosion is an ongoing continuing thing. We have a water main that is nearing the edge of that bluff and it’s just a matter of time before it’s going to be at the bottom of the bluff. This project is preempting that. We’re going to go ahead and abandon that pipe in place. We’re not going to remove it because we don’t want to dig up and disturb the area near the bluff’s edge because it would only encourage erosion, but we’re going to step back to a safe distance, cut into the existing main and cap those and redo a service on a house there adjacent to the church at the end of Mission there. Yes, it’s a huge priority. To be honest with you, I’ve got people that are getting some stuff gathered because of the high priority of this project. I would expect we’d have folks out here within the next 60 days that this is going to be done.”
Several new valves will be installed to allow for the abandonment of the line with two new fire hydrants being placed into service to allow for flushing of the pipelines in the area. Completing the work now allows the department to manage the work in a controlled manner and will help avoid potentially serious and extensive erosion in the event the line fails while still under pressure.
The resolution was adopted unanimously.
