Water line project bidding process

Last Thursday, several vehicles were parked in the 400 block of Broadway, their occupants in Thermopolis Town Hall for a pre-bid meeting regarding the water line replacement project.

Town Engineer Anthony Barnett explained the project had to be advertised to meet the funding agency requirements, and the pre-bid meeting was mandatory so people know what they’re dealing with as this is not a typical water line replacement. The project deals primarily with transmission lines to the water tanks.

This Thursday, Barnett said, they will open bids for the project. The Engineering Associates office will review them and prepare a recommendation letter to the Town of Thermopolis. He hopes the letter will be ready to go by Tuesday, Feb. 6

As to what the project includes, Barnett said there will be a bore from the water plant under the river, parallel to the Sixth Street bridge, and tying into existing lines at the corner of Sixth and Shoshoni.

The other main leg from the water plant involves line replacement over to Eighth Street. Barnett said those are the critical parts of the project and why there was a mandatory pre-bid meeting. Should anything happen with those lines, no water leaves the plant.

The project also includes work in Hot Springs State Park and East Thermopolis. Barnett explained there was a previous bore project that went under the river and ended outside NWBOCES. The upcoming project will see the line run up behind the Days Inn, then between the hotel and The Pioneer Home over to Park Street. A line will then be run from the Park Street bridge to the tank in the state park.

Fifth and Seventh Streets will also see some work, with lines on Seventh replaced from Shoshoni to Broadway and those on Fifth Street from around Richards Street to the flagpole. If the bids come in for an alternate route for the line, it would go from Fifth and Warren back around to the new line installed a few years back on Fourth and Broadway.

The final piece is a line from 14th Street to Cedar Ridge station.

The project is expected to be completed this fall. Barnett said there is some concern about long lead times on some of the pipe materials, so some of the milestone dates are subject to change.

For water customers, there will be outages that roll along with where the project is, but everybody will be kept in water, Barnett said, with the exception of the short shutdowns for connections. For the most part, all outage will be planned and people will be notified.

Some lines are being upsized, which will help pressures at the plant, Barnett noted, and make the pumping process more efficient. The pressure we all see at our homes rely on the static water level at the tanks and not so much the transmission lines.

The biggest benefit, Barnett said, is that the reliability of the system will be maintained.