Lewis & Clark awards three construction contracts for increasing water security

TEA, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - The Lewis & Clark Regional Water System’s Board of Directors has awarded three more construction contracts.

Funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) will be used for all three of the following projects:

• Eatherly Constructors of Leawood, KS ($16.4 million contract): 17 miles of 16-inch diameter PVC pipe between Hull and Sheldon, I.A.

• DN Tanks of Dallas ($4,471,900 contract): One million-gallon ground storage reservoir a few miles east of Madison, S.D.

• West Branch Construction of Boyden, IA ($5,212,892 contract): Pump station a few miles south of Hull and a meter building at Sheldon.

Lewis & Clark received a total of $75.5M in BIL funding for this year and is eligible to receive additional funding for the next two years.

The funding received will allow the Hull pump station to add a third pump that would increase its pumping capability from 44 to 60 million gallons a day. Additional construction outside of the third pump will be funded separately by non-federal entities.

“It is much less expensive to add the third pump now instead of a separate contract later. Other expansion-related contracts will be awarded later this year,” said Executive Director Troy Larson. “The drought the last few years has made it abundantly clear we need to get started now on the expansion. Our current goal, which is subject to change, is to have the expansion completed by the end of 2030.”

Lewis & Clark needs to award six more contracts in order to complete the construction of the base system. Depending on federal funding levels it is expected the last of those base system contracts will be awarded by the summer of 2023. The goal is to have 20 members connected by early 2025, according to a press release from Lewis & Clark.