Tucker company award $7.7 million county watershed contract
- 5/28/12
- Categorized in: DeKalb News
A Tucker company has landed a $7.7 million contract for a part of DeKalb County’s watershed capital improvement project.
Desmear Systems Inc. of Tucker, was awarded the contract to prepare the site at Snapfinger Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility on Flakes Mill Road in Ellenwood for later construction. The contract, awarded by the Board of Commissioners on May 22, runs from June 1 to January 2013.
The company will be responsible for clearing, grubbing, rock and soil excavation, and construction of a retaining wall.
The bid of Desmear Systems, the only DeKalb County company that submitted a bid, was nearly $4 million lower than the highest bid of $11.3 million.
“This is a cap,” said Ted Rhinehart, the county’s deputy chief operating officer over infrastructure departments, when asked whether the company would be able to exceed the contracted amount. “They knew going into this what all the specs and requirements are.
“Because it’s the type of work that a lot of people can do—clearing, grading, blasting, hauling—all I can assume is that they sharpened their pencils; they wanted the work bad enough that they were going to shave some profits to get there.”
The $7.7 million price tag will be paid using 2011 capital improvement project bond funds.
“Really, this is the smallest part of the contract for the expansion of the plant,” Commissioner Lee May said. “The next phase is what is going to be the big, big phase.”
It will cost the county approximately $250 million to rebuild, upgrade and expand the Snapfinger facility in the “single largest project we will undertake,” said Joe Basista, director of the county’s watershed management department, in March.
The actual construction phase is expected to be bid out in the second or third quarter of 2012.
The Snapfinger rebuild is part of a $1.345 billion capital improvement project the county is undertaking over the next several years to upgrade its aging water and sewer system.
This year, the county will begin approximately $400 million worth of capital improvement projects.
