The Kenai City Council enacted an amended ordinance that would increase estimated revenues and appropriations in the Water and Sewer Special Revenue Fund and Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements Capital Project Fund to provide supplemental funding for the Sludge Press Replacement Project.
The Public Works Department’s priority one project is to replace a 40+ year old piece of equipment which staff continues to regularly perform excess maintenance on to ensure its continued operation. During the design phase, the engineering team identified several code required issues, which need to be addressed to allow for the equipment to take place.
Public Works Director Scott Curtin tells the Kenai City Council:
“We’re finishing up design documents now. We actually have already ordered the new press itself. It’s been in fabrication. It’s actually set to arrive in July. We did that because it was a very long lead item, and we knew that, and we knew the press that we wanted. We got that designed, incorporated, and then we ordered it. We’ve been working through the design. The design is approaching 95% completion right now. I’ll have those documents in hand to go out for bid towards the end of May. We’ll go out for three weeks and we’ll have an actual construction contract underway. The press because it all happened to arrive quickly in June because of our ordering, that’ll come online pretty quickly. Some of the additional work that we have here is the result of those functional assessments that we’ve done that identified other shortcomings in the property. This isn’t to say specifically that the sludge press itself got more expensive, it’s the other issues that are in the area that make sense to do now to avoid having to do later and pay for things twice.”
A contract amendment to HDL Engineering in the amount of $87,144 is needed to complete the additional scope of work within the design. The additional code issues and design contract amendment require additional funding in the amount of $840,000, bringing the total funding to date for the project to $2,040,000.
Curtin says that completion of this work is essential for the continued safe operation of the facility within regulatory requirements.