It cost twice as much as first expected and has taken more than twice as long to finish, but the first of several major infrastructure projects in the city is near completion.
Work on replacing water and sewer lines in the 65-year-old Pleasant Acres subdivision should wrap up sometime in August, said Starkville Utilities General Manager Terry Kemp.
“We’re probably 90-percent complete on all the water and probably 50- to 60-percent complete on the sewer,” Kemp said Thursday. “We’re making really good progress now that things are beginning to dry up.”
The Pleasant Acres project is the first of three infrastructure projects planned by the city. Green Oaks is next on the schedule, followed by Rolling Hills. Other yet-to-be-announced projects will follow.
In July 2018, the city raised some sewer and some water rates to fund the large-scale projects, estimating the increases would produce an additional $1.7 million per year.
In August, preliminary reports estimated the cost of replacing the water/sewer lines in Pleasant Acres, which has about 100 homes in a subdivision just south of Highway 12 and west of South Montgomery Street, at $600,000 with a construction time of 90 days.
Two months later, when bids were opened, Louisville-based 4-D Construction was the low bid at $980,144. Along with costs not covered in the bid, the total price tag exceeded $1 million. The time estimate was off considerably, too. Work began in late October. If completed by the end of August, the project will have taken 10 months.
“There were several things that affected the progress,” said Kemp, who noted that it was difficult to estimate the amount of repairs needed in a subdivision that opened in 1954. “But probably the biggest thing was the weather. We had extremely wet weather and some extensive delays. That’s just not something you can work around.”
Kemp said the decision to install the sewer lines at a greater depth than they were originally also extended the work schedule.
“The goal is to make sure the work is done in a way that it ensures we’ll have the kind of infrastructure that will last for another 65 years, if not longer,” Kemp said.
Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker, whose ward includes Pleasant Acres, said he’s heard relatively few complaints from residents, something he attributes to bringing residents into the discussions before the project began.
“We had two meetings with residents, one at the very beginning, and another after the bid was accepted,” he said. “The contractor came and met with residents, laid out the plans and answered their questions. I think that was very important. They were going to have to rip up driveways, take down fences, do a lot of things that were challenging. I think the contractor continued to do a good job of talking to homeowners all through the project.”
Kemp said preliminary engineering on the Green Oaks project is already under way, but he declined to predict when the project would go out for bids.
“Every project is going to be different because the needs are going to be different,” said Kemp, who said the Green Oaks project is roughly four times larger than that of Pleasant Acres.
Walker, however, said the efficiency of the Green Oaks work should benefit from the challenges encountered in Pleasant Acres.
“I think the city will be able to take what they’ve learned from the work in Pleasant Acres and apply it to other projects,” Walker said. “Really, I think it went about as well as could be expected, but I do think there will be things we can learn about what worked and what didn’t work quite as well and use that going forward with the other projects.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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