By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
City council members heard an update on a major sewer line expansion project during their most recent meeting.
Completion of the first phase of the $30 million project will allow development to continue on the city’s north side.
City Manager Shawna Burkhart introduced the update, later in the meeting telling council members at least one developer has had to pause a planned project because of the city’s sewage capacity issues.
Burkhart told the council, “We have asked (the) STV (company) to come and present tonight. They are a sub-consultant of Tetra Tech, our engineering firm, and they are here to present to you (information about) the Northside Sewer Outfall design and update.”
STV engineer Javier A. Esquivel Jr. began the presentation by thanking the mayor and council. Esquivel, a native of Del Rio, said he is the manager of the project for STV.
Before starting the update, Esquivel introduced members of his team who had joined him at the meeting, including engineer Marisa T. Vergara, the project principal with STV; and Jaime Kypuros, the program manager for the project with Tetra Tech.
Esquivel noted STV is leading the design for the northside line, and Tetra Tech is taking the lead on improvements at the Silverlake Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Esquivel said, “First of all, a brief overview since it’s been a little while since we’ve been here. The Northside Sewer Outfall project is a Texas Water Development Board (TWDB)-funded project. Its primary goal is to upsize the existing 18-inch Silverlake interceptor (sewer line).
“And so, with the aging infrastructure and the capacity constraints, we’re looking to install a 33- to 30-inch (line) on the downstream side all the way up to a 12-inch on the (upstream) north side. This will be from the Edwards (Street) lift station on the north end all the way down to the Silverlake Wastewater Treatment Plant. As part of this project, we’ll also be eliminating the Edwards Street lift station, which will help with some operation and maintenance, and then we’ll be doing some upgrades to the influent box at the treatment plant to accommodate the larger pipe,” Esquivel said.
Esquivel then gave a brief history of the project.
“As mentioned, this project initially started in 2008, so it’s been on the books for a little while. At that time, the project was taken to 90 percent design, and that was approximately 2010,” Esquivel said.
He told the council the project “was placed on hold” between 2010 and 2022 “due to funding and alignment revisions.”
“Within the last few years, we feel like we’re getting the pieces in place, one of those being the easement acquisitions. As part of the original contract, easement acquisition was not part of the scope. It was understood that the city would lead that, and the administration at the time decided it would be a better idea to have us bring in some other consultants and get that started, so in 2023 we got HRM Solutions out of Blanco, who are going to be leading the right-of-way and land acquisition management and Mr. Abner Martinez, with Amistad Consulting Services, is going to be doing the land surveying,” Esquivel said.
He said last year, the decision for phased construction of the project was set, and the first phase of the project was identified and defined.
“The primary goal of Phase I is to use the funding that is available now to address the urgent capacity constraints that the city has for development. The goal is to get Phase 1 underway and then in parallel, continue with the Phase 2, which would be the remainder of the project, starting from Owens Drive up to the (Edwards Street) lift station,” he said.
He reviewed the two construction phases in more detail.
Esquivel said the design of the Phase 1 construction work in 90 percent-plus complete. He said Phase 1 construction will go from the Silverlake Wastewater Treatment Plant to Owens Drive.
“Then Phase 2, which was temporarily put on hold, is at 60 percent (design completion), would be the remainder of the project, from Owens Drive to the Edwards lift station,” Esquivel said.
He provided more details about the first phase of construction, noting, “A critical path item for Phase 1 will be the easement acquisition and the railroad permit, so, as I mentioned earlier, we have started the easement acquisition process. We have draft metes and bounds for a majority of the (land) parcels. At the end of 2024, an alignment was recommended by the city, an alignment change, to go from Cienegas Road to old Cienegas Road, and that was to, primarily, help with construction costs, so you’re looking at a cost savings of about a million dollars moving to the old Cienegas Road alignment.”
“With that decision, we have all the pieces in place to proceed with the completion of Phase 1,” he added.
Esquivel then reviewed approximate construction costs for the entire project.
Phase 1 construction is estimated to cost about $7 million, he said.
“And that will utilize the entirety of the Texas Water Development Board funds,” Esquivel told the council.
He said Phase 2 construction is estimated to cost $23.5 million, for an estimated total cost of construction at $30.5 million.
Esquivel said the consultants are in the process of completing paperwork to obtain funding from the state for the second phase of the construction.
Mayor Al Arreola asked if council members had any questions for Esquivel.
Hearing no questions, Arreola asked Esquivel to continue.
Esquivel reviewed the timeline for the entire project.
He said the design for Phase 1 will be completed by the end of September, with advertisements for bids for the project set to go out during the last three months of the year.
Construction on Phase 1 may begin by the end of the year, he said.
“That construction is estimated to take about 12 to 14 months, so looking to complete construction of Phase 1 by 2026,” Esquivel said.
The design for Phase 2 is estimated to be complete by the end of the first quarter of 2026, with advertisements for bids to be done by the end of mid-2026, he said.
Construction of Phase 2 is scheduled to begin once a bid is received and approved.
“With Phase 1, it is addressing the urgent need now, but to address the city’s plan for development, Phase 2 will allow the city to have the capacity for all the planned development up on the north side,” Esquivel said.
After Esquivel finished his presentation, Burkhart told the council, “The documentation provided to you, Phase 1, addresses our urgent need. That is, we have one pending development currently. We’ve asked that Phase 1 address that pending development, and they believe it can. However, we’ve asked STV and Tetra Tech to model Phase 1 to see if we can get any more development addressed prior to these deadlines for Phase 2.”
“Right now, we’re only addressing the urgent, which is the pending construction of one development. All other developments would essentially be on hold until we could do Phase 2 or until Tetra Tech and STV tell us that there is more capacity that they can acquire by Phase 1,” she added.
“I guess the million-dollar question is, do we have the $7 million for this (Phase 1 construction)?” Arreola asked.
“We actually have, I believe, right at $8.7 million, of which $1.4 million is assigned for engineering services and the rest is assigned for construction,” Burkhart replied.
Arreola asked if there were any other questions, and Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. asked Esquivel, “Do you already have the materials where it will be available at the time of construction? The 30- to 33-inch pipe?”
Esquivel replied, “No, sir, once it goes to bid, the contractor will be responsible for acquiring that material.”
“Most of the time, the delays is (the contractor) can’t find the material,” Lopez said.
“Right, and that’s something we’ve considered on previous projects, and one thing you can do is alternate bid and give them an option to source other materials, and that’s something we do as part of our cost estimate is get an update on timelines, costs of the available materials, pipe, and make recommendations that way,” Esquivel said.
Burkhart added, “I will share with city council that we have attempted to exhaust all options with regards to, not only, the sanitary sewer line for Silverlake, but also for our water needs, but we have reached out to the Texas Water Development Board, to our state representatives, our federal representatives, our congressional representatives and we are doing everything in our power, including the possibility of riding on TWDB’s D fund for development and using their interest rate, which is a really great interest rate compared to ours. Ours is great too, but not as good as the state’s, to try and drive down the cost.
“We are making every effort to look for money and exhaust every effort in doing so,” she added.
Arreola asked Burkhart if she would be bringing the council a resolution or an ordinance to move the Phase 1 work forward.
“At this moment in time, I do not have a date set for Phase 2, to bring back before you. We need to first, I’ve sent out a summary of our water and sewer needs to the EDC, to the county commissioners court, to the chambers of commerce, so that all entities that may be affected are aware of our problems. We’ve even been in communication with Laughlin Air Force Base, and so we continue to keep all of the entities apprised. We are inviting them to our tours and keeping them apprised of where we are,” Burkhart replied.
“Our first debt issuance (of 2025) will be related to water, and then we will come back with Phase 2 (of the sewer line project) very shortly thereafter,” she added.
“My question is on Phase 1. When can that be started?” Arreola asked.
“Phase 1 is currently in our bank account right now, and we can move on it as soon as we have appropriate bidding in place to follow state purchasing guidelines and get a contractor on board,” Burkhart said.
She added one thing not addressed in the update was that the city “does not have formal easement acquired from Union Pacific Railroad.”
Burkhart said the city and its engineers would be reaching out to “our state and federal representatives to assist us in trying to acquire that easement in a timely manner.”
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
