$2.5M sewer line project moves forward

Joe Martin, The Seguin Gazette

The city will soon embark on a $2.5 million project to replace about 2000 feet of sewer line.

The city council approved the project of sanitary sewer line spanning from the Walnut Branch Wastewater Treatment Plant to south of the Seguin Public Library during its regular meeting on Tuesday.

Council members approved the resolution that awarded the bid of more than $2.5 million to S.J. Louis Construction of Texas, LTD for phase two of the Walnut Branch Sanitary Sewer Project to replace 24-inch sewer line with 2,000 feet of new pipe, City Engineer David Rabago said.

The current pipeline running through the designated area of construction for the project is nearly 50 years old and could present issues if not replaced, Rabago said.

“It’s old clay pipe, and the thing about clay pipe is it starts getting brittle as it gets older, and it starts cracking,” he said. “Then you start getting groundwater in there from the creek, and it starts getting into the pipe, and then it makes its way into the treatment plant. Then we’re treating groundwater instead of sewer at our treatment plant.”

The city solicited bids for the project and received 10 bids ranging between $1.7 million and $4.4 million, the city memo read.

S.J. Louis Construction of Texas, had the second lowest bid, Rabago said.

“We did have a lower bidder that did come in from [Vaca] Underground Utilities. However, they did not have very favorable references, and they did not have the project experience for this type of project,” Rabago said. “And that’s the reason why we recommend awarding it to S.J. Louis. They came back with favorable references, and they also did Walnut Branch phase one, so they are familiar with the area.”

Phase one of the Walnut Branch project was conducted about five years ago and involved the reconstruction of a sewer line near Guadalupe St., Rabago said.

“That was one of my first projects… It just goes along Walnut Branch all the way north of Kingsbury Street,” he said. “That one was phase one, and this one we are calling phase three, which is currently under design, and that will go into construction sometime next year.”

The five-year gap between phases one and two is due to a lengthy planning process along with garnering funding, Rabago said.

“We’ve [also] had other projects that were given a little bit more priority, and then we circled back around with this one,” he said. “There was also a need for right of way acquisition, so that takes a little bit of time as well.”

Councilwoman Fonda Mathis asked if the sanitary sewer line project will conflict with the $184 million wastewater decommission project that was recently passed.

“We’re going to be tied into the existing lift station for the Walnut Branch Treatment Plant, and then from there, we’ll probably be extending this line to feed the new lift station that’s part of the wastewater decommissioning project,” Rabago said.

The location of the sewer line construction will present several problems including topography and groundwater.

The sewer line project is slated to begin construction by the end of August and is estimated to take about 270 days to complete, Rabago said.

“We understand that construction is intrusive, we just ask the public to bear with us as we go through this project,” Rabago said. “It’s going to be a difficult project just because of the topography.”

Joe Martin is a staff writer for the Seguin Gazette. You can e-mail him at joe.martin@seguingazette.com 

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