During their Jan. 4 meeting, City Commissioners will consider awarding a $1.3 million professional services agreement to TD&H Engineering for work on a city lift station and force main.

Staff is recommending approval of the agreement.

Staff is proposing to hire TD&H to conduct topographic survey, geotechnical investigations, complete the project design, plan development, assemble bid packages, assist with bidding, and contractor selection for the sanitary sewer improvements associated with this project. A subsequent agreement will be provided for construction and post-construction phase professional services including complete as-built drawings, according to the staff report.

City considering sewer river crossing

The existing Lift Station No. 1 force main was constructed in 1979 and is the only river crossing for this section of the city’s sewer collection system, according to city staff, and serves the original downtown, east to and including Malmstrom Air Force Base and Agritech Industrial Park and south to 10th Avenue South.

The lift station pumps about a third of the city’s sewage across the Missouri River to the Wastewater Treatment Plant, via the station’s force main.

“The existing force main was constructed under emergency conditions in response to a failure of the 1959-installed crossing. The failure of the 1959 crossing resulted in a protracted, direct, and uncontrolled discharge of untreated sewage to the Missouri River. The construction of a redundant force main provides resilience and reliability in this segment of city-critical infrastructure; whereby, helping the city minimize/prevent the risk of service interruption, regulatory exposure and environmental damage associated with having a single point of failure,” according to the staff report.

City seeking feedback on ARPA fund application, potential grant process

The project will implement recommendations from the June 2021 Feasibility Study, including installation of a redundant force main crossing the Missouri River and improvements and repairs to the lift station, according to city staff.

The proposed design will also provide connections to the pumping station and the head works at the WWTP.

The city received six proposals for the project that were reviewed and scored by city staff with the top four being selected for interviews.

The project was selected in October to received $2 million through the ARPA competitive grant program through the state’s allocation. The city proposed a 50 percent match to the grant funds and $662,000 will be funded through the city’s ARPA allocation. Sewer treatment funds have been programmed and budgeted to fund the remainder of this phase as detailed in the Public Works capital improvement plan.

The remaining $1.3 million in state ARPA funds will be used during the construction phase of the project, according to staff.