By Betsy Finklea
The bids were approved on the $9 million water and sewer upgrade Rural Development project at the Latta Town Council meeting on Thursday night.
This is the project that the council first introduced about four to five years ago, and Latta Town Administrator Jarett Taylor said it has taken this long to see ground broken.
Taylor said the work on East Leitner, East Main, and East Rice streets pertain to the RIA (Rural Infrastructure) grant.
Taylor said they were bidding out the first of three phases with a total cost of $2.6 million for Phase One.
Grand Strand Water and Sewer and Engineer Mike Hanna have approved of this. Taylor said the ultimate goal is to replace the water and sewer lines and repave Highway 301.
Taylor explained each of the contracts: Contract #1 is an award-based bid with alternates one and seven in the amount of $771,391. L.W. Incorporated is the low bidder. $583,000 is for replacing the sewer line on Highway 301. $129,000 is set aside to help the sewer and camera people with a sewer survey.
Contract #2 is to replace the water line on Highway 301 from Rice Street to past the high school moving it out of highway right-of-way. This contract is in the amount of $583,896.50, and the low bidder was Driggers Construction.
Contract #3 is to buy and replace the water meters in the amount of $470,935. Ferguson water works was the low bidder. They will come in teams and will replace all of the water meters in Latta.
Contract #4 is in the amount of $134,572.20, and the low bidder is Red Zone Robotics. They will send robots into the sewer that use sonar to determine the cracks and problems in the line. They will have to wait until late April or early May to start.
After the bids are awarded, Taylor said, the town will turn this in to USDA, and the projects will start in a few weeks. Taylor made a motion to accept the bids and proceed, which was seconded by Mayor Pro-Tem Trudy Drawhorne. The motion was unanimously approved.
