Published: June 30, 2009 09:05 pm      

Lexington firm turns in low bid for wastewater treatment facility project

Somerset — A Lexington company is the apparent low bidder in a major construction project by the City of Somerset.

Mayor Eddie Girdler announced this week that W. Rogers Company bid $12,687,000 on the construction of a new regional wastewater treatment facility that will actually be an expansion of the current plant at Pitman Creek.

Eleven companies placed bids on the project. W. Rogers’ bid was about $2 million less than what had been anticipated in the city’s recently passed 2009-2010 budget.

“The large number of companies bidding on the project reflects the overall decline in construction throughout the nation and the need to have construction projects that will maintain and create new high-paying jobs in the industry,” Girdler said.

The new, expanded treatment facility is expected to meet the wastewater needs of the region for the next 20 years. The project is also designed to continue to protect Lake Cumberland environmentally.

The wastewater treatment plant expansion will increase its capacity from 3 million gallons per day to 4.4 million gallons per day.

Girdler says funding for the project has already been approved through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in the form of grants totaling $6.4 million, and a nearly $8.5 million loan from the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority.

Pulaski County residents who receive water service from the City of Somerset — basically any county residents who don’t live in Somerset, or in some portions of Burnside and Science Hill — will be sharing in the cost of the facility expansion in the form of a rate hike of approximately $6 per month. Water and sewer rates for Somerset residents will not change from the previous year.

Once the required paperwork is completed, construction on the wastewater plant should begin in about 45 days. The project should be completed in approx-imately 15 months.