Bidding to Repair Mississippi Sewer System Begins

The Vicksburg Post reports (http://bit.ly/2lPi3Mj) that city public works director Garnet Van Norman told officials during a Tuesday meeting that Suncoast Infrastructure of Florence and Gulf Coast Underground of Mobile were the only two bidders. Suncoast bid $1.445 million and Gulf Coast bid $1.56 million.

The money won’t cover the full cost of the repairs to the aging system found during an initial assessment already conducted by Suncoast, Van Norman said, but will cover about 4 percent of the problems.

“What we did, we just tried to get a contract going,” he said. “It’s just to get started doing the repair work.”

The initial work will be done on a street targeted for overlay as part of the city’s $9.2 million capital improvements bond issue.

The sewage repair work is part of a 2013 consent decree between the city and the Environmental Protection Agency to assess, map, repair, upgrade or replace one-tenth of the city sewer system.

EPA tests indicated the city’s aging sewer system was allowing untreated sewage to be released into local streams, including the Mississippi River.

In 2015 the board hired Suncoast to assess and map the first one-tenth of the sewer system. On Monday they signed a contract with the company to assess the second one-tenth.

Some of the city’s sewage lines date back to 1908 and are made of clay pipe.

The board took the bids under advisement.