Bids in for Phase III of Clearfield Sewer Project

CLEARFIELD - The numbers are in for the third phase of Clearfield Borough's sanitary sewer upgrade, and the low bid is about $1.5 million less than budgeted.

Continental Construction Inc. of Ridgway submitted the apparent low bid, opened during Thursday night's work session of the council. Their bid was for $3,476,282.

Continental has completed work on earlier portions of the borough's upgrade.

The bids received, 12 in all, will be reviewed, and one could be accepted as early as next week's regular meeting.

The next lowest bid came from Guyer Bros. Inc. of New Enterprise at $3,998,737.

"Those are real good numbers," said Todd Banks, engineer for the project with Stiffler, McGraw and Associates.

"We're already under budget," he said, noting that about $5 million had been budgeted to be spent on this, the final stage of the borough's sewer project.

Phase III encompasses Cumberland and Chester streets in Second Ward and most of the Fourth Ward, including the area from East Sixth Street and east to the borough line.

Phase III could begin as early as Thanksgiving. The contract for Phase III calls for completion in 10 months.

Banks also noted that Phase II is about 70 percent complete. Phase II includes portions of Second Ward and Fourth Ward.

Banks said the contractor for the project, Kukrin Contracting Inc., is focusing on street paving so that snow plowing and winter driving are not an issue. Banks has received a "fair amount" of calls from people who were concerned about driveways, and he said the worst-case scenario is that there is a 1-and-one-half-inch lip that will be cold-patched before the winter.

Banks said that with the amount of work Kukrin has been able to accomplish thus far, he said there is a good chance that if the weather remains "decent" until mid-November, all of the necessary work can be completed.

Clearfield Borough Council will next meet Thursday at 7 p.m.