Bid To Be Awarded On MV Sewer Line Expansion

Members of the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board (MVTAB) were updated on plans to expand the local sewer system in a meeting held Wednesday, July 29. Clark County Water Reclamation District (CCWRD) engineer, Adam Warner, told the MVTAB that a low bidder had been identified for the project. The CCWRD board of directors is expected to accept the low bid of Las Vegas Paving Company this week, Warner said.

Warner explained that the expansion to the Moapa Valley sewer system was being completed with two main components. A new sewer treatment plant is currently being built to replace the old facility south of downtown Overton. The plant will have ample capacity to handle additional flows from an expanded collection system. The new plant is expected to be completed and in operation by October of this year. “That project is coming in on schedule and on budget,” Warner said.

The second component would increase the service area of the local sewer system. Historically the system has provided service only to residents and businesses in the downtown Overton area. The proposal was to extend the system along the Moapa Valley Blvd to service the rest of the lower valley.

Originally, plans were drawn to expand the system all the way to Wells Ave. at the north end of Logandale. A second line was to branch off at the Yamashita Bridge and provide service to the east side of the Muddy flood channel. But these plans were based on growth projections that have slowed significantly. So the plans were scaled back to go only as far as the Yamashita intersection.

“The base bid was to go as far as the Yamashita crossing,” Warner said. “But we also had an option put into the bid of going further on to Lyman (near the Gubler Bridge).”

The projected cost of the line to Yamashita had been $23 million. But the bid, including as far as Lyman, came in much lower at only $14.7 million. So the district is expected to contract for the line to be built all the way to Lyman.

MVTAB Chairman, Gene Houston, who also has served on the local CCWRD Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC), said that that it makes good sense to go ahead and expanding the line now. “Let’s face it, currently there is no urgent need for a sewer system,” Houston said. “All the proposed development that had made this necessary has all gone away in the bad market. But because of the significant discount on construction, we on the CAC felt that we would never get it built cheaper any time in the future. We felt that now is the time to go ahead and do it.”

Houston stated that the CAC had also recommended that part of the branch going east from the Yamashita Bridge ought to also be completed in order to service the Moapa Valley High School facility.

Warner stated that, while the district had already gotten environmental permits to have the line cross the flood channel at Yamashita, only about 50% of the engineering work had been done for that branch of the project. “We plan to complete the remaining design work and get it out to bid as soon as we can,” Warner said regarding the line to the high school.

The proposed sewer line has been designed to accomodate any hookups that might be needed in the future. “The plans provide for a stub-out (connection) at every parcel along the Boulevard and also a manhole connection at every cross street,” said Warner.

Those connections will await the time that new development returns to the community. At that time, the CCWRD will recoup the costs of construction through impact fees to the developer. “When such time that these development projects start up again, the developers will pay a fee that will cover the construction costs on the portion of the line that their development will use,” Warner said.

Construction on this portion of the project is expected to begin in late October or early November this year and to be completed by March 2011.