BASA awards $250K bid for improvements
BUTLER TWP — The Butler Area Sewer Authority will spend $252,000 to make much-needed improvements at a pump station in the Meridian section of the township.
Authority board members at their Tuesday morning meeting voted to accept the recommendation of their engineering firm, Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, to award the bid for improvements to the Rock Lick pump station to Utilities Contracting of Youngstown, Ohio.
Utilities Contracting was the lowest bidder for the project, which will see excavating, pipe replacement, and new components on various equipment, said Duane McKee, authority executive director.
He said the pump station, which is in the Cupps Road area, also will need a new force main within five years.
The project will be paid for from the authority’s capital improvement fund, McKee said.
He said no start date is in view because shipping backups could occur when the pipe for the project is ordered.
McKee also told the board members that 11 overflows throughout the BASA system occurred in February.
He said seven overflows happened on Feb. 17, when a combination of melting snow and significant rain overwhelmed pumps.
Four more overflows happened Feb. 25 during another wet weather event, McKee said.
He said the pumps at the various overflow locations were too small to handle the deluge of water caused by the saturated ground’s inability to absorb the rain and melting snow.
Also at the meeting, the board members approved two cost-sharing agreements with the state Department of Transportation.
McKee said in the agreements, PennDOT pays 70% of the project’s costs and the authority pays 30%.
The cost-sharing agreements occur when BASA sewer lines are in a PennDOT right of ways.
McKee said in addition to paying for the majority of the project, PennDOT also pays for the project’s design.
“It’s a huge cost savings,” he said.
