OXFORD — The first part of the first phase of the town’s $23.7 million wastewater treatment facility has been completed and the project is adhering to its schedule, engineers said Thursday.
The town is in the process of building a state-of-the-art sewer treatment plant with pipes running from near the Oxford Casino down Route 26 and into downtown and nearby areas. The project is in a winter “shut down” period until spring, when crews will lay fresh loam, begin painting and test pumping will start, Woodard and Curran Vice President Brent Bridges told selectmen Thursday evening.
The town has spent over $6 million to date and is scheduled to award over $8 million more in contracts in the coming months, according to Town Manager Michael Chammings.
The work includes laying sewer pipes from the Rabbit Valley road to the intersection of routes 121 and 26, installing three pump stations, an operational outfall pipe into the Little Androscoggin River and pouring the foundation for the treatment facility.
Negotiations are ongoing between engineers with Woodard and Curran, hired by the town to design and oversee the project, and Auburn-based T-Buck Construction in an effort to reduce costs from the low bid for the treatment facility.
The building, which is not scheduled to be worked on until March, is costing almost half a million dollars above estimates. Already, Bridges said they’ve been able to find between $350,000 to $400,000 in savings by recommending changing piping from stainless steel to PVC and believe more savings can be found in ventilation and control systems. Selectmen will have the final say over the schematics, Bridges said.
“It won’t change the size of the project or how it functions. We believe there’s another $100,000 we can get out of them,” Bridges said.
Design on the second phase of the project to bring sewer pipes from the treatment facility over onto King Street has begun. These include discussion whether the project can be expanded to include Wal-Mart, which is located approximately three miles away from the current spot the sewer pipes end.
The review, according to Chammings, is primarily over flow concerns and whether the system will have enough users hooked on when its predicted to become operational next fall.
That decision will likely teeter on two events, he said: the construction of a hotel across the Oxford Casino, which is said to be tethered to the sewer, and if there’s sufficient federal funding to cover the expansion.
Last spring, the town received $23.7 million in funding from the Department of Agriculture to complete the sewer system, viewed as an asset in maximizing the economic potential of the casino.
ccrosby@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
