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CUC closes bidding on Agingan A&E contract today
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Posted on Sep 06 2005
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will close today the bidding in the architectural and engineering service contract for the much-delayed Agingan ocean outfall construction.
CUC initially set an Aug. 31 deadline for submission of proposals from firms interested in providing consultancy services for the wastewater infrastructure project. The deadline was later extended to Sept. 7, 2005.
The consulting service contract will be funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Babauta administration recently reprogrammed $759,000 from EPA’s water infrastructure grant fund to the wastewater infrastructure program. The governor did the reprogramming pursuant to his authority to transfer up to 33 percent of the total grant funds from the drinking water program to the sewer program.
The amount forms part of the CNMI’s total EPA water grant funds from fiscal year 1997 through 2005.
For six years, the federal environmental agency has ordered CUC to construct an ocean outfall to improve the quality of water effluent being discharged from the Agingan treatment plant into the ocean. EPA also required the utility to match its $1.2 million grant for the repair of the Agingan sewer treatment plant.
The outfall project has been the top-ranked project on CNMI’s wastewater project priority list for EPA funding since 2001. It consists of the installation of a sewerline outfall solely by horizontal directional drilling method, according to CUC. It includes land and underwater piping, junction structures, demolition of the existing clarifier, connection to existing system, and diffuser assembly, among other things.
