Addleton negotiated lower bid

Tough negotiations between Cairo’s city manager, public works director and officials with a Florida construction company have resulted in a lower cost to replace a sewer lift station here. RTD Construction of Zephyrhills, Fla., agreed to the more acceptable price for replacing the sewer lift station on Seventh Avenue S.E.
RTD’s original bid, which was the lowest of the four received, was $777,207.50, but the problem was that only $750,000 was included in the city’s budget for the project.
City Manager Chris Addleton and Public Works Director Raymond Stokes met the RTD officials and eliminated some items and negotiated a final cost of $709,377.50, which is well within the city’s budget for the project and closer to the estimate of $600,000 from consulting engineer Hal Wiedeman of the firm Wiedeman & Singleton.
Wiedeman met with the council last May to discuss the need for the project and estimated at that time the project could be done for approximately $600,000.
The council voted unanimously Thursday night to accept the revised bid of RTD Construction. Addleton will bring a construction contract back to the council for its approval at a future council meeting.
Officials estimate it will take 12 months to complete the project, but Addleton predicts it will not take much more than six months.
The replacement lift station will be built just west of the existing station and, once the system is converted to the new station, the old one will be demolished.
Wiedeman told city officials last May he had seen sewer lift stations in worse shape, but he had never seen an operational lift station in worse shape than Cairo’s Seventh Avenue lift station.
According to the consulting engineer, the Seventh Avenue station serves 40 percent of the city. Wiedeman last year pointed out that the lift station has no backup power generator, the facility does not meet code, there is corrosion in the wet well, and the facility is in need of immediate replacement.