By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

It was a “pleasant surprise” for interim Hays Public Works Director John Braun when the low bid for the current storm sewer lining project was considerably less than Braun anticipated.

“Since this is a relatively small project, we thought the unit prices would be higher,” he told Hays city commissioners Thursday night at their meeting.

Braun called it a “clean-up project” following extensive work in 2014-2015 which cost the city $1.1 million. “There shouldn’t be any more corrugated metal pipes out there that need to be lined for the foreseeable future,” he reported.

The final project is about 1,100 linear feet of pipes ranging in diameter from two to three feet.

Commissioners unanimously approved the bid of $130,800 for storm sewer lining and inlet basin rehabilitation to Mayer Specialty Services, LLC of Goddard, the same company that did the work three years ago. The current work is part of the city’s 2017 Capital Improvement Program with a cost estimate of $225,000. Mayer’s bid was considerably less.

The project is concentrated along the south side of 13th Street from Pine to Milner, more than 900 feet. There are a few additional sections on west 12th, General Custer at Centennial, and 15th and Main. The crumbling brick on sewer inlet basins at various locations will also be rehabilitated.

During the earlier project, new storm sewer pipe was laid in the same area of 13th Street on the north side. Laying new pipe on the south side would have cost “about 50 percent more than the rehabilitation,” according to Braun.

He expects at least a 30-year life once the pipes are lined by spin cast concrete, but “not your normal concrete you’d use for a driveway. “It’s a high strength fiber reinforced concrete that lines the inside of the old pipe about an inch thick,” Braun explained. “It’s a good repair method.”

The proposed start date is September 11, 2017 with work to be completed by the end of the year.