Landmark project approved

July 1, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- The biggest public works effort in the history of Palmer was approved by the city council Tuesday night. The $10.3-million project will bring more than 5 miles of sewer and water lines to the new Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, near the Parks-Glenn highways' interchange.

Palmer City Manager Tom Healy said the project represents more than just utility extensions to the hospital, though. In the future, Healy said subdivisions along Trunk Road and Parks Highway corridors could tap into the utilities. Mat-Su College also has potential access to the lines.

"It's a water-sewer extension to the area of the hospital," Healy said. "It's designed to provide service to many more customers than just the hospital."

The construction project was awarded to Anchorage-based developers, International Bridge Corp., which submitted a bid $1.3 million lower than the nearest competitor and nearly $2 million lower than the city had anticipated.

"I'm a very pleased mayor," Palmer Mayor John Combs said, just after the city council voted to award the construction contract to IBC.

Healy said the bidding process is always uncertain, especially with a pipe project that includes a substantial amount of material made out of oil.

"Our estimates had been formulated a year ago or so," he said, "but you're never sure in these things what the bidding climate is going to be."

Construction should begin sometime in August, this year, with a completion date set for September 2006.

The utilities route will take water and sewer lines south out of Palmer, through the Springer Loop area and then out to the Glenn Highway, where they will follow the railroad tracks.

The lines then cross the Glenn Highway near the Kepler-Bradley State Recreation Area before running through University of Alaska property and down Trunk Road to the hospital site.

Funding for the project comes from four sources. A $7.3-million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant covers the lion's share of expenses.

Other sources include a $2.3-million voter-approved bond, a $1.8-million Department of Environmental Conservation grant and a $600,000 Environmental Protection Agency grant. The Palmer City Council also approved the use of $1.3 million out of the city's utility reserve funds, if necessary.

Healy said specific user fees from the new lines will go towards paying bond debt for the project as well as restoring any money that might be taken from the city's utility reserve funds. User fees for the extended lines will be structured differently from fees on the existing lines.

"We need to recover those funds," Healy said. "But the existing utility users will not be paying off these utility lines."

With the borough's rapid population growth in the core area and new subdivisions and businesses developing daily, Palmer Public Works Director Rick Koch hailed the project as a landmark moment.

"I believe this may be the largest public works project that the city of Palmer has undertaken -- ever," he told the council.

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266, or joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.