EPHRATA — Ephrata city staff plan to start accepting bids for the second part of their road and water pipe replacement project by Tuesday.

Roads and water pipes are being replaced in residential areas in the southeast section of Ephrata, between Division Street and Second Avenue Southeast and streets south of Nat Washington Way.

The northeast section of the city was finished last year.

“All of these areas (that are worked on) will see essentially waterway and roads,” City Administrator Wes Crago said. “There are a couple small areas that won’t have anything. They’ll have a little bit of road work done where the water pipes are okay.”

The goal of the project is to replace aging water pipes and roads because the city was loosing about 24 percent of their water through leaks. Many of the water pipes in residential areas are more than 60 years old and were only designed to last 10 to 15 years.

In response to the problem the city received a $6.6 million Public Works Trust Fund loan from the state, Crago said. The city also contributed about $1 million.

The project is divided into four phases and is expected to be finished by 2011, he said. The city spent about $3 million on the first phase of the project. While the engineer’s estimate isn’t finished, Crago expects the estimate for the second phase to be about the same.

“Everything is paid through the southwest (section of the project,)” he said. “We’ll be looking for funding here shortly for the northwest section (of the project.)”

Crago said the price may come in below what the city is planning and it would help them with the next two phases.

“The bid environment is very good from other cities that are doing this,” he said. “There are a lot of contractors that are looking for work and they’re coming in with pretty low numbers, so we’re hoping we can be substantially under the engineer’s estimate.”

Public Works Director Bill Sangster said the main roads won’t be affected once the construction starts.

“It’ll be a lot nicer then when we were digging into Division (Street) up here,” he said. “So you won’t have that main drag that’s being cut off at any point.”

Crago said city staff are expecting to have the bidding process done by the middle of March and to have work start by the beginning of April.