Whitefish is one step closer to repairing an ancient section of water main as the City Council accepted a bid and awarded a contract for construction on the Spokane Avenue water main project during its regular meeting on May 2.

According to the city, the Spokane Avenue corridor is home to one of the oldest cast iron water mains in Whitefish and has long needed to be replaced. In early March, council rejected a lone bid for the replacement of the water main after it came in 70% higher than the city’s estimate. The city decided to rebid the project.

The second round of bids came in on April 14 and four bids were received. Sandry Construction, the only bidder in the first round, was the lowest bidder in the second round with a bid of $2.79 million.

Deputy Mayor Frank Sweeney asked Public Works Director Craig Workman what caused the change in Sandry’s bid.

“We revised the schedule for completion next May so it's now going to be built in two phases,” Workman explained. “That opened up a whole bunch of competition and Sandry Construction knew it, so their bid came down about $600,000.”

Bids for material procurement were opened in January of this year and Northwest Pipe Fittings’ bid of $568,010 was well below the engineer’s estimate.

Construction was originally estimated to cost $2.45 million and the current estimated cost to complete the project is approximately $3.9 million. Some of the money will be paid with a minimum allocation grant of $1.45 million, which is part of the American Rescue Plan Act, and the remaining will be budgeted in fiscal year 2023.

The Spokane Water Main Project is now anticipated to be completed in two phases. Phase one of the project will start at the end of August and hopefully be completed in October. Phase two will run from March to June 2023 while the city anticipates Montana Department of Transportation's repaving project will start in June 2023, though the final schedule will be determined by MDT

In February, the city advertised for bids for the construction of the new water main and received only one bid. That bid was significantly higher than the engineer’s estimate so at the March 7 meeting of the council, they rejected the bid and directed staff to re-bid the project with a revised completion date of May 31, 2023.