The tender to construct the Bowden to Olds section of the new wastewater and water lines was recently awarded.Dennis Cooper, the chairman of the South Red Deer Regional Wastewater Commission (SRDRWC), said during a Penhold town council meeting the commission had decided on the successful bidder during its May 18 meeting in Bowden.Dale Withage, the contracted chief administrative officer of the wastewater project, confirmed Hamm Construction, a company out of Saskatchewan, was the successful bidder.He explained the bidding process has to be open to out-of-province contractors.“That's part of this open bidding process,” Withage said.The contract was awarded for a total of $24,059,295 for both the water line and the wastewater line. The two lines are being put in at the same time. The SRDRWC's portion of the Bowden-Olds line is $12,215,800.The wastewater project, which will see effluent eventually pushed from Olds to Red Deer's wastewater treatment plant, was initially estimated to cost $107 million. Withage said those initial estimates from 2007 are now being updated.“It's going to be over $120 million,” Withage said.Withage said it's hoped the construction of the Bowden-Olds line will start this summer and be completed in the first quarter of 2013.“At that point we'd be able to move some of Olds' wastewater,” Withage said. The new line won't be able to take all of the wastewater from Olds or other communities along the line yet as the Red Deer treatment plant needs to be upgraded. Those upgrades aren't scheduled to be completed until 2015, so the wastewater commission is trying to make sure their pipes and lift stations will be ready to go.“We're really gearing up to have our construction completed by 2015,” Withage said.In addition to recently awarding the Bowden-Olds tender, the SRDRWC went through the process of an expropriation hearing for the first time.Withage said the hearing was in late May and involved three parcels of land just north of the town limits of Olds.“They weren't willing to sign the right-of-way agreement,” Withage said. Though the hearing proceeded, Withage said it's his understanding the two sides were asked to find a solution. A resolution was apparently found and presented at the hearing, with the landowners withdrawing their objection.“This was I think the first one we've gone through,” Withage said of expropriations to put in the wastewater line.Withage said another case came close to going through the expropriation process but a deal was struck before it proceeded. In other cases where the landowners wouldn't agree to grant rights-of-way the commission has found ways around the land instead, Withage said.“Periodically you have to make some jogs in the line,” he said.There's a potential for future expropriation hearings for three properties east of Red Deer, Withage said, but nothing formal has been done yet. He said the negotiations can be difficult but they will keep working to find a resolution with landowners.
