Pump Station Bids Come in Double What Middle Expected

COURT HOUSE – “What did we miss?” Those words expressed Middle Township Deputy Mayor Theron “Ike” Gandy’s amazement that the lowest bid for the reconstruction of four sanitary pump stations was more than double the engineer’s estimate.
The estimate, just over $1 million, was well below the lowest bid, at nearly $2.5 million.
The news came at a Feb. 1 meeting of Middle Township Committee, when Mott MacDonald Engineer Angelo Bufaino informed the committee of the result of a bid process dealing with plans to fix four of the oldest pump stations in the municipality, as part of a multi-year effort to upgrade all 21 municipal sanitary pump stations.
Bufaino could not explain the gap between the bids and the estimate, generally citing the expansion of the work scope, the added cost of “doing business on the Cape May peninsula,” and the cost of equipment included in the bid process, like emergency generators.
The need to upgrade the sewer system pump stations has been building for years, but it became especially urgent in 2018 and 2019, when spiking fees from the county Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) placed large, unexpected burdens on the municipal budget.
Fear was that wastewater intrusion in the sewer system was leading to increased flow and spiking expenses. The existing pump stations gave the municipality no independent check on the MUA’s data concerning flows.
In 2019, the municipality authorized a $2.5 million bond ordinance and brought Mott MacDonald to survey the sewer system and help prioritize the many areas of refurbishment the system needed. Some of the oldest parts of the municipal sewer system date to the 1930s.
The four pump stations in the recent bid process are, according to Business Administrator Kimberly Krause, “the worst of the worst.” The stations are not only old and in dire need of repair, but they are also below flood elevation levels, adding to the expense.
Mayor Timothy Donohue agreed that the municipality would have to look at the discrepancy between the estimate and the bids, but emphasized the need to keep the process moving.
Donohue said it was critical for the municipality to get a handle on the flow levels from its sewer system to the MUA. He also said that municipal employees were barely able to keep the pump stations running, and any additional time before repair created added risk of failure.
Middle Township Chief Financial Officer Susan Quinones presented two options in the face of the higher-than-expected bids. Noting that only about $2.1 million remained in the 2019 bond ordinance, Quinones said the municipality could either make up the difference through its 2021 budget process or put in place a new capital ordinance for the remaining costs in the bid.
Donohue said the budget process for the next year was facing enough challenges. The likelihood is that the municipality will go with additional capital funding.
Either approach, according to Quinones, probably put the municipality into late April before the funds could be committed to make up the difference.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.