Iowa City wastewater plant demolition bids much lower than expected

IOWA CITY Despite the rising cost of construction projects, plans to demolish Iowa Citys now-closed north Wastewater Treatment Plant managed to come in several million dollars below the original estimate.

On Tuesday, the Iowa City Council will vote on awarding a contract for the wastewater plant demolition project to Minnesota-based Veit & Company, Inc.

Veit & Companys roughly $2.05 million bid for the project is less than half the $5.5 million estimate for the project, which was drafted by a private engineering firm.

Veit & Companys bid was the lowest of five received, with the highest still roughly $300,000 below the estimate.

Were very pleased they came in where they did, Ben Clark, Iowa City senior civil engineer, said of the bids.

That said, Clark noted that while bids for construction projects tend to come in at or higher than estimates these days due to a high demand for contractors, demolition projects are often a wild card.

With demolition its a little bit hard to estimate, Clark said.

Factors in pricing depend on which company bids specialty contractors tend to bid lower and the manner in which demolition will take place moving and disposing materials comes with an added cost.

For the wastewater project, Veit & Company, which specializes in waste management, will use much of the crushed materials created in the demolition process as backfill for the land.

Well minimize hauling, we wont haul any more material to the site, Clark said, adding that recycling and salvaging materials will be key.

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Iowa City wastewater plant demolition bids much lower than expected