Contractors interested in bidding on the Town of Winamac’s wastewater project will be meeting project officials today, according to Town Manager Brad Zellers.
He told Council members Monday night, “Contractors that are interested in bidding, and there are three this time, they’ll be here to go over any questions that they would have for the engineers and that type of thing just so they know how to throw their price at it.”
Originally, Town Council members held a special session back in October where they opened bids for this project. However, at that time only one bid came in from Crosby Construction and it reportedly came in significantly over budget.
Rather than selecting the only bid provided, members formally rejected the bid at a meeting in November and authorized the process to be conducted again.
During this week’s meeting, Town Manager Zellers noted that there were some areas of the original proposal that were unclear which resulted in the major difference between the estimated project cost and the contractor’s bid.
In order to get a better estimate this time around, Zellers mentioned a contractor came to the plant and drilled three different 2-inch wells to determine where the water table is located.
Zellers said the location of the water table is important because if the contractor is required to dewater before they can install the necessary tank, it significantly increases the price of the bid. He said by knowing where it’s at, the contractors will have a better idea of what needs to be factored into their bids.
Zellers noted that more information about the next bid opening will be known after today’s conference between contractors and the engineers. However, he did confirm that it will be held at 10 a.m. ET on Tuesday, December 18th.
