Bids submitted for waste-water project

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - The City of Terre Haute has received nine bids from companies hoping to complete the last phase of upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, officials said Monday.

Those bids, which range from about $115 million to about $125 million, come from companies as far West as Texas and as far East as Vermont, city engineer Chuck Ennis said Monday. Though the lowest bid is still higher than the city’s original estimate of $110, Ennis said city leaders are still reassured that all nine bids fall within $10 million (or 10 percent of the total project cost) of one another.

The final phase of upgrades to the plant will replace and upgrade parts of the plant that date back to its construction in the 1960s and to an earlier upgrade in the 1980s. In all, the phase is expected to last about three years, Ennis said.

“The reason it takes so long is because you can’t shut down operations at the existing plant while you’re building the new one,” Ennis said. “So you’re really building the new plant on top of the old plant.”

City leaders say the entire overhaul of the plant will both reduce odors from the plant and improve the quality of treated water that is released into the Wabash River.

Officials say they still need to examine and investigate each of the bids before hiring a company to do the work.