Tech Pump Replacement Moves Closer To Construction

Cookeville has awarded a bid and is moving toward construction for the Tennessee Tech pump station replacement project.

Water and Sewer Director Barry Turner said they are currently working to finish the paperwork and schedule a pre-construction meeting with the contractor before giving him a notice to proceed. Turner said the lowest bid the city received for the project was for some $11.7 million.

“Now days it’s hard to get materials in,” Turner said. “So he will probably not really start work there, probably it’ll be about March or so before he would actually start any real work out there. He may tear down the apartment buildings prior to that.”

Turner said the contractor will be submitting shop drawings to show what materials will be used for the pumps until the materials arrive. Turner said their contract states the work must be finished within eighteen months of when construction begins.

“Some items may take over six months or even closer to a year to get delivered,” Turner said.

Turner said the project’s final cost has gone up “tremendously” compared to their estimates when they entered the design phase.

“It was close to $2 million more than the estimate that we had earlier this year,” Turner said. “So yeah, just the longer that it took us to get it started the more the price went up.”

Turner said the city bought extra land around the project site so the contractor has room to work without causing much issue for citizens nearby.

“If there’s rock where they’re having to dig out for the wet well they may have to hammer out the rock which will make a little noise,” Turner said. “So there’ll be some disturbances but we’re going to take some efforts to minimize those.”