Construction of new sewer lines around Saratoga Lake should be done by the end of June, after two years of work, according to Saratoga County Sewer District officials.
The $18.4 million expansion project begun in the fall of 2012 — the biggest since the sewer district’s creation 35 years ago — has installed eight miles of new sewers around the lake, from Saratoga Springs to the southern end of the lake in Malta.
The project is being done to supplement sewer capacity around the lake, where a combination of new development and conversion of seasonal camps into year-round homes has taxed the infrastructure installed in the early 1980s.
“Substantial completion is scheduled for the end of June. That is on time,” said sewer district Executive Director Chad Cooke.
Some landscaping and cleanup work could continue after the end of June.
Sewer district officials began planning for the upgrades about five years ago, and John D. McDonald Engineering of Schenectady was hired to design the project in 2010.
The original McDonald contract was for $789,000, but the firm is going to be paid an additional $240,000 for extra work done after the size of the project grew during its design.
At a meeting today in Ballston Spa, the county Board of Supervisors is expected to agree to the additional payment to McDonald, which will come from sewer district funds.
Cooke said McDonald is entitled to the money because the initial cost estimate was based on a one-year construction project. While designing it, McDonald found additional sections of pipe that needed to be replaced or increased in size, Cooke said. The costs were incurred some time ago, but the district wanted to wait until the contract’s end before making extra payments.
“Now is the time to actually adjust their contract,” Cooke said.
The McDonald contract also covered design and inspection for a new 31⁄2-mile sewer line installed on routes 4 and 32 in Halfmoon. Construction of that line was completed last year.
Despite the higher payments to the engineers, County Administrator Spencer Hellwig said the overall project is still within its $18.4 million budget.
The Saratoga Lake portion of the project included upgrades to the nine sewage pumping stations around the lake. Grinder pumps serving individual homes in the Silver Beach section of Malta, which periodically flood when the lake is high, also have been replaced.
Also at their meeting today, county supervisors are expected to award a $40,000 contract to the Environmental Design Partnership of Clifton Park to design and bid a relining of a deteriorated sewer trunk line in the town of Ballston.
Cooke said about $1 million is budgeted to reline 2,500 to 3,000 feet of the sewer main, which carries all wastewater generated from Ballston Spa and Saratoga Springs to the county treatment plant in Halfmoon.
“We anticipate that will be done later this year,” Cooke said.
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