Joint Venture Submits Low Bid on Water System Improvements Contract, WS-648A

Executive Construction Mgmt. Co/NQN Contracting, Joint Venture, submitted the low bid on December 11, 2012 for the project known as DWSD Contract WS-648A, "Water System Improvements: Various Streets Throughout the City of Detroit."

Here are the as-read bids. Equalization will not affect the outcome of this bid.

1. ECM Co/NQN Contracting, JV . . . . $3,692,100
2. Imperial Construction Co. . . .  $4,336,423
3. Major Cement Company . . . . . $5,235,930
4. RBV Contracting, Inc. . . . . . . .  $5,754,589
5. Blaze Contracting, Inc. . . . . . .  $5,792,000
6. Willie McCormick Co. . . . . . .  $5,932,757
7. Pamar Enterprises, Inc. . . . . .  $6,176,266
8. Lawrence M. Clark, Inc. . . . . .  $6,178,641
9. Ric-Man Detroit, Inc. . . . . . . .  $9,181,373 

Comment: Its good to see a lot of bidders on this job, including a number of new faces. Competition is a good thing. However, the low bidder appears to be quite low. $644,323 is an awful lot of money to leave on the table, and that's assuming Imperial has a good number. Even they look pretty low.   

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WS-682A, Imperial Construction Submits Low Bid on Water Main Repair Project

On March 15, 2012, Imperial Construction submitted the low bid on the project known as DWSD Contract WS-682A, "Repair of Water Main Systems: Various Pipe Sizes at Various Locations Throughout the City of Detroit."

1.  Imperial Construction  . . . . . . . .$4,395,965

2.  Blaze Contracting. . . . . . . . . . . . $4,496,705

3.  Willie McCormick & Assoc . . . . $4,582,008

4.  L. D'Agostini & Sons . . . . . . . . . .  $7,673,214

5.  Ric-Man Construction . . . . . . . $12,518,706

Contract WS-682A is an as-needed repair contract covering a minimum of 500 water main breaks per year. 

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DWSD Director Responds to Report about Water Main Leaks

DWSD Interim Director Pam Turner responded today (here) in a Letter to the Editor in the Detroit Press to earlier reports about Detroit's trouble water mains --

In response to the March 2 article "Water mains are a ticking time bomb": For starters, the $23-million cost for unaccounted water is erroneous. The cost to ratepayers for the issue referenced by the article is perhaps 10% of that figure, or less than 1% of the total revenue of the DWSD water system.

Further, the article stated that most of the region's water problems are tied to Detroit's aging water system. Of the 12,500 miles of water infrastructure in southeast Michigan, only 3,500 miles of pipe -- most of which is in the city of Detroit -- are owned and maintained by DWSD. The remainder is local infrastructure owned and maintained by individual communities.

Detroit residents and businesses alone are responsible for the cost of maintaining their local distribution system. This cost of $25 million-$30 million a year for water line replacement comes solely from Detroit retail water rates and is not a cost charged to any suburban wholesale customer community. Wholesale rates are a separate structure and cannot be used to finance work being done solely for retail customers in Detroit.

The primary reasons for annual water and sewer rate increases are the cost of capital improvement projects, many of which are federally mandated. These mandates -- on the wastewater side -- have no associated federal grant or loan dollars, and the costs are borne by the communities served. Additionally, the recent financial crisis in the bond market has significantly raised the cost of debt service for the bonds financing our capital improvements. The impact of these factors on our rates is outlined in Web-posted presentations and related material shared with the wholesale customer communities and available on the 2009-10 rate season schedule found at www.dwsd.org.

"Unaccounted-for water" is a term with differing meanings in its application to rate-making. The water industry has been moving to more precise terminology in recent years and has used "non-revenue water" to refer to such situations as hydrant use, inaccurate metering and inaccurate pumping figures. "Lost water" has been used to describe water lost as the result of water main breaks and transmission loss in the water system. Based on an ongoing study of the DWSD system, the figure for lost water is more accurately reflected at 9% of total system production, as recently reported to the Board of Water Commissioners at its February business meeting.

DWSD remains committed to providing its 4.3 million customers with safe, reliable drinking water and responsible wastewater collection and treatment at affordable costs that place it as the third lowest of the nation's 20 largest municipal systems for water rates and eighth lowest for combined water and sewer rates.

Pamela Turner
Interim Director,
Detroit Water and Sewerage Department

Another Water Main Break Along I-96

The Detroit Free Press reports here, and the Detroit News reports here that a 48" water main broke along the I-96 service drive in Redford Township on Saturday [March 7, 2009], and flooded a 2-mile stretch of the freeway.

George Ellenwood, a spokesman for the Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD), said I-96 was reopened by noon, but Schoolcraft will remain closed between Beech Daly and Inkster until repairs are completed early this week. Excavating crews were at the scene and expected to work throughout the weekend.

The immediate cause of the break was not known, although it cold be part of a pattern of breaks related to DWSD's aging infrastructure. In July, 2007, portions of the same water main that broke Saturday broke near Livonia, and flooded I-96.

Saturday's water main break also comes less than a week after the Detroit Free Press published an article (here) breathlessly entitled that "Water Mains are a Ticking Time Bomb" which noted that --

"Brittle and badly aging water pipes are lurking beneath many metro Detroit communities and will cost taxpayers billions of dollars to repair or replace over the next decade."