🎥 1 bid for wastewater treatment plant rebuild; city commission to vote Thu.

Stan Christopher, HDR Engineering, holds copies of the Hays wastewater treatment plant design-build proposal from Burns & McDonnell/CAS Constructors. — Stan Christopher, HDR Engineering, holds the Hays wastewater treatment plant design-build proposal from Burns & McDonnell/CAS Constructors.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The Hays city commission is expected during Thursday’s commission meeting to approve a contract for Phase 2 design and construction to rebuild the 54-year-old wastewater treatment facility.

In February, requests were issued for lump sum design-build proposals to the two remaining design-build teams. The Black and Veatch/Garney team declined to submit a proposal.

The sole bid came from the Burns and McDonnell/CAS Constructors team for $28,402,200. Burns and McDonnell has worked on a number of projects for the city.

Stan Christopher with HDR Engineering, the city’s Owner’s Representative for the project, reviewed the bid for the commission during their April 20 work session. The B&M/CAS bid includes new filters to replace the current filters which are corroded.

“It’s a different and more modern technology using what we call a disk or cloth,” Christopher explained. “The filters are primarily there to further clean up the wastewater as clean and clarified as possible and then it will be used to irrigate the Fort Hays Municipal Golf Course and the ball diamonds.”

The filters remove solids, which are filled with phosphorous.

John Mitchell, Burns & McDonnell/CAS joint venture manager

“With the city’s current phosphorous limit (mandated by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment), the clarifiers normally will be able to handle that. But the filters are there for the days there might be a problem at the plant,” Christopher explained.

The city was fined $18,000 in 2012 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for excessive levels of phosphorous and nitrate. The current wastewater treatment facility, 1498 E. Highway 40 Bypass, was built in 1953. The plant must be upgraded to meet stricter state permit requirements of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) and EPA.

Hays initially had a Jan. 1, 2018, deadline to have the new wastewater treatment plant operating. However, problems with CDM Smith, the Wichita firm hired for Phase 1 Design services and development of a GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) to rebuild the aging plant, caused a delay in the process. The city terminated the arrangement Aug. 18, 2016, after the Phase 1/Design portion of the contract was completed.

KDHE has agreed to extend the deadline to Sept. 1, 2019, according to Christopher.

“We budgeted $27.6 million for this,” said Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty. “The B&M/CAS bid is $2 million less than the GMP offer we had from the previous design/builder (CDM Smith).

“The $28.4 million bid for Phase 2 is something we can afford,” he reassured commissioners. “It’s not going to impact customer rates. We’ll be able to absorb the overages with the rates we’ve been collecting.”

“I’m glad we’re finally getting this going,” said Hays Mayor Shaun Musil.

In August 2015, the Hays city commission approved tripling the sewer rate over a six-year period to help pay for the plant upgrade. The city has a $30.26 million loan agreement through the KDHE Kansas Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund (SRF) Loan to pay for the project.