TEA, S.D. — The Lewis & Clark Regional Water System's Board of Directors has awarded a $14.36 million contract to construct the final piece of the 42-mile Madison, South Dakota, service line.
The contract, for 16 miles of 16-inch diameter PVC pipe, was awarded to Carstensen Contracting of Dell Rapids, South Dakota.
The substantial completion deadline for the project is August 2024.
The contract awarded last month for another project with the same scope was just over $16.5 million, according to Troy Larson, Lewis & Clark executive director.
"Water pressure on the pipeline we awarded yesterday will be lower, so we were able to use pipe that has thinner walls than on the previous contract. Less plastic means lower cost," Larson said. "Even so, for all the reasons we hear and read about every day the low bid was $1.9 million more than what was included in the original budget as adjusted for inflation."
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Later this year contracts will be awarded for a million-gallon ground storage reservoir a few miles east of Madison and to add pumps at the Crooks pump station.
Those are the last two contracts needed in order to deliver water to Madison.
Lewis & Clark was incorporated in January 1990 and its congressional authorization was signed into law in July 2000. It is a non-profit wholesale provider of water to its member cities and rural water systems in southeast South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. Water is being delivered to 15 members.
Hull, Iowa, and Sioux Center, Iowa, are expected to begin receiving water by mid-2023. It is anticipated Sheldon, Iowa, will begin receiving water by early 2024, mid-to-late 2024 for Madison and early 2025 for Sibley, Iowa.
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