In a quick reversal, the Village Council approved a contractor’s bid to lay the sewer main on the original schedule which was to have it completed and ready for residential and commercial hook-ups this summer. At their February 14 meeting, councillors had rejected the two contractor bids submitted, and had decided to re-advertise the project for new bids.

But a late legal clarification apparently allowed the Village to accept the original low bid after all at a special meeting February 20. Now the project is back on track, Mayor Phil Gasteyer said.

Minutes of that special session note that Village Attorney John Appel “said that there had been some question as to the validity of the winning bid at the last regular meeting. The New Mexico Environment Department had been in the position that the low bidder, KR Swerdfeger Construction, Inc., did not qualify and was non-responsive because a sub-contractor they had listed in their bid to do the traffic control was not registered with the New Mexico Department of Labor Workforce Solutions. That position was in fact incorrect, and therefore, the bid is acceptable.”

With that new legal opinion, councillors unanimously approved the contract for KR Swerdfeger Construction February 20.

“The contractors have offered to work day and night to expedite the project, and plan to start the week of March 5,” Village Administrator John Avila reported. Contractors’ representatives met February 23 with Village officials and their engineering firm to explain crucial details of the sewer line laying, “including prioritizing critical path action to complete drilling under MRGCD facilities.”

Exactly when crews will have to drill under the irrigation ditch in the vicinity of Corrales Road and Cabezon Road was not clear as of March 5. Although the Conservancy District’s irrigation season was scheduled to begin around March 1, as it did last year, weeks sometime pass before water fills the acequia at that location.

The need to perform the underground drilling for the sewer line at that location when the ditch has no water has been identified for more than a year. Last fall the work couldn’t start until water stopped flowing, and now it has to be done before water flows again.

Orange markings were spray painted onto pavement and road shoulders during the first few days of March to locate utility lines that should be avoided when the directional drilling for the sewer line begins.

The contractor’s project manager met with MRGCD officials Leonard Utter and Ray Gomez March 5 about the possibility of drilling under the irrigation ditch while it carried water.

“The contractor is to re-do its schedule slightly and apply for a special  license which will need proof of insurance and some other details which MRGCD will expedite,” Mayor Gasteyer explained.

“A ‘de-watering plan’ will also be prepared which, as I understand it, deals with drilling through saturated soils if encountered at whatever depths they are penetrating under the waterways.”

Gasteyer said the contractor expects to be allowed to drill a tunnel for the small-diameter pipeline there during the week of March 12.

At their February 14 meeting, councillors rejected both bids by contractors to extend the sewer line on south beyond Meadowlark Lane where it has been dead-ended for more than a year. 

One of the two bids was ruled non-responsive to the Village’s request for proposals (RFP) because it did not specify what firm would be subcontracted for traffic control work during the sewer line installation along the road’s shoulder.

The other bid did itemize that subcontractor, but the firm had let its registration with the N.M. Department of Labor to lapse —an oversight which the Construction Programs Bureau of the N.M. Environment Department (NMED)  said rendered the contractor’s bid unacceptable, Village Attorney Appel reported at the February 14 meeting. 

“I disagree with that position taken by NMED,” Appel said, “but NMED is your funding agency.”

Appel recommended that Village officials re-start the contract awarding process by repeating the required advertising of the RFP. That would mean weeks of delay that would push construction start-up beyond the date on which MRGCD would flow irrigation water into the Corrales Acequia. 

Conservancy District officials have said they would not permit underground drilling for the sewer line when the ditch is flowing. Since the sewer line follows Corrales Road and the road crosses the Corrales Acequia, the directional drilling to lay the flexible, small-diameter sewer pipe would have to be done before the March waters or after October when they stop.

The idea had been to complete the drilling and pipe installation near the acequia first to have that completed before irrigation season began, and then do the rest of the installation this spring and summer.

Gasteyer asked the project manager from the engineering firm Souder, Miller and Associates, Jerry May, “Is there any prospect that because we’re drilling well below the bottom of the ditches involved with the MRGCD  that they might allow us to do it even though  irrigation season has begun?”

May said that possibility had been discussed with MRGCD, and that it was to have been discussed with the successful bidder on February 15. But since there was no successful bidder and the awarding of a contract through a re-bidding process would likely be a month away, the decision wouldn’t be made for weeks.

Mayor Phil Gasteyer drew the obvious conclusion: instead of the line being finished by July as he had been saying, “we’re probably talking about November now” to complete the waste water line.

After that discussion Councillor Pat Clauser called for a rejection of the bids. “On the advice of counsel, I move that we reject all bids.”  The motion to reject was approved unanimously.

The long-delayed project is being  paid for primarily by  nearly $1 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a loan-grant package last year from the N.M. Environment Department.

Last month, Mayor Gasteyer said he still hoped homes and businesses in the commercial district would be able to connect to the sewer line this summer.

 In the sections south of Meadowlark,  some adjacent property owners have asked to be allowed to hook up to the sewer line as well.  To accomplish that, several pavement cuts will have to be made across Corrales Road between Meadowlark and Cabezon Road to lay stub-outs for service to the opposite side of the road.

At least one lane of Corrales Road must be open throughout the project. The construction technique is expected to be similar to that used for the first phase, Wagner Lane to Meadowlark. Crews will drill a horizontal hole underground through which will be pulled a flexible plastic pipe that will carry waste water when the main is completed.

Last year the N.M. Environment Department offered to resolve the funding  impasse with a grant and low-interest loan to cover costs of completing the connection to the existing City of Albuquerque sewer system just south of the Coors-Alameda intersection. (See Corrales Comment Vol.XXX, No. 18, November 5, 2011 “Sewer Line Resumes in January; Hook Ups Expected Next July”)

The Village Council adopted an ordinance at its September 27, 2011 meeting that commits to repaying a low-interest $540,000 loan from the State using revenue from a special environmental services gross receipts tax.

All members of the council voted for the measure obligating some of the Village’s tax revenue for 20 years to repay the sewer loan. 

After the main is laid, approximately 80 buildings in the commercial district along Corrales Road from Wagner Lane to Meadowlark would be connected to the sewer.

That will entail connecting a small-diameter plastic pipe to the discharge outlet of each septic tank, diverting effluent away from leach fields and out to the sewer line along Corrales Road.