Water main replacement along part of U.S. 41 and water quality initiative discussed on March 17
With a unanimous vote, the Sarasota city commissioners have approved the next two steps in an 11-year-long process to upgrade the city’s utility infrastructure and improve the quality of its drinking water.
The March 17 action, taken in one motion, will entail the city’s paying Metro Equipment Service of Miami $28,985,263.22 for the replacement of a water main pipeline on North Tamiami Trail and $23,684,190 to Archer Western Construction LLC of Atlanta for the potable water initiative.
The water main will be replaced from the 14th Street intersection of U.S. 41 to just north of the University Parkway intersection, a map shows. That initiative is to begin this summer, with estimated completion in the winter of 2028, the Agenda Request Form for that undertaking explains. The formal agreement says that Metro Equipment Service is “to complete the entire Project Scope of Services within 931 calendar days from issuance of the [city’s] Purchase Order.”
The 8-inch asbestos cement pipeline along U.S. 41 will be replaced to “improve the distribution system resilience, and public safety, and welfare,” the e adds.
The Safe Drinking Water Foundation explains, “In 1906, an Italian company combined asbestos fibres with cement to produce a reinforced water pipe. The asbestos cement (AC), or transite pipe, was first introduced in North America in 1929. AC pipe was a common choice for potable water main construction during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.”
The Foundation adds, “The use of asbestos cement pipe was largely discontinued in North America in the late 1970s due to health concerns associated with the manufacturing process of AC pipes and the possible release of asbestos fibres from deteriorated pipes. It has been estimated that up to 18% of the water distribution pipes in the United States and Canada are asbestos cement. The pipes can contain up to 20% asbestos.”
Among the facets of the city project will be the following, the Agenda Request Form notes:
- The decommissioning and abandonment of an aging, redundant 16-inch asbestos force main from the 17th Street intersection of Tamiami Trail to Lift Station No. 10, which is located just northeast of the Whitaker Bayou Bridge.
- The abandonment of an aging 24-inch cast iron reclaimed water line along North Tamiami Trail from 18th Street to Whitaker Bayou.
- Horizontal directional drilling under Whitaker Bayou and the bridge.
- The replacement of 20 fire hydrants, plus the installation of new water service connections and new meter boxes and covers.
In regard to the water quality initiative, that Agenda Request Form points out that the city’s water treatment plant, located at 1850 12th St., produces 12 million gallons of drinking water per day. The water comes from two sources, that form explains: the city’s “Downtown” wellfield, which draws water from the Floridan Aquifer, and the city’s Verna Wellfield, which is located in the far eastern portion of the county.
The water from the aquifer, the form notes, has higher levels of chloride and total dissolved solids. Reverse osmosis is used to treat 6 million gallons of that water.
The other 6 million gallons a day comes from the Verna Wellfield, which “has relatively high levels of sulfate, strontium, Total Organic Carbon (TOC), and hardness,” the form continues. That water is treated, as well, and then blended with the water obtained through the reverse osmosis process, the form says.
While city staff “has been able to produced finished water that is complaint with the [applicable] regulations by maximizing the use (blend) of treated water from its ‘Downtown’ wellfield,” the form points out, as the city’s population grows and water demand rises accordingly, more of the treated Verna groundwater will be needed.
However, the form explains, because of challenges in treating the Verna Wellfield water, given the existing technology, the finished water “may become more corrosive, thus making it more difficult [for the city] to comply with the lead and copper rule requirements.”
As a result, the form continues, staff has been preparing for the future by starting with a series of proposed improvements.
The city will use low-interest loans from the State Revolving Fund, through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), to cover the expense of both projects, the Agenda Request Forms explain.
The commissioners also voted unanimously on March 17 to incorporate the loans into the city’s budget.
‘Worthy of a presentation’
During the March 17 meeting, both Commissioners Jen Ahearn-Koch and Kathy Kelley Ohlrich had asked that the two items be pulled from the board’s first Consent Agenda of routine business matters that day, for discussion.
“Almost $29 million seems like a lot of money to me,” Ohlrich pointed out. “I thought it worthy of a presentation.”
Ahearn-Koch told her colleagues that she felt the same way. Members of the public, she added, have asked the commissioners “not to be behind the 8 ball but to be in front of it.”
Verne Hall, director of the city’s Utilities Department, explained that, in May 2024, staff requested City Commission approval to apply for state loans for a number of projects, including the two on Consent Agenda 1. “We promised to come back to [you],” he added, for each phase of those projects. “This is the final step,” Hall said.
Further, he noted, staff had requested $34 million for the water plant initiative and $30 million for the new water line, but the bids for those projects came in lower than anticipated. “The nice thing about [state revolving loans],” Hall continued, “is if you don’t take the money, you don’t have to pay it back.”
Vice Mayor Debbie Trice told Hall, “I did want to give you the opportunity to remind everybody how old the water mains are that you will be replacing,” plus the problems that the Utilities Department staff encountered with water mains as a result of the 2024 hurricane season.
The water pipelines are “between 50 and 70 years old,” Hall replied, “so they’ve definitely done their duty … and it’s time for them to be replaced.”
Then Hall noted that Hurricane Milton, which came ashore at Big Sarasota Pass on Oct. 9, 2024, “got the distribution system, and our crews were out at … 2:30 in the morning, looking for potential leak sites right after the storm.”
A couple of nights later, Hall continued, he and another staff member went out around 11:30 p.m. to look again for leaks.
“When you have trees and ground shifting,” Hall pointed out, “those pipelines can break.”
Since then, he said, staff has installed pressure transmitting devices to help detect leaks. “We hope in the future we can identify different quadrants where we’re seeing drops in pressure,” instead of having to search the entire city, he added.
Mayor Liz Alpert then noted, “We hear all the time” about the need to invest in infrastructure. In 2019, she added, the commissioners agreed to a $300-million, years-long upgrade.
“This is all part of [that] project,” Hall replied. The overall initiative included issues to be addressed at the water treatment plant and within the water distribution system, as well as the wastewater treatment system. “We’ve spent about $250 million out of that,” he said. “We’re actually already beginning to update that [$300-million] master plan … so we’ll be back to the commission with next steps …”
“It’s a huge amount of money,” Alpert acknowledged, “but we are able to do it, and we are doing it. I just wanted to make sure everyone understood that.”
The initial vote on the 11-year-long project took place in July 2019, with the majority of the commissioners seated at that time agreeing that rate increases for city customers would be necessary, starting Sept. 1 of 2019 and continuing through 2030, to pay for the plans.
Staff constantly is assessing the system to determine future needs, Hall told the commissioners.
Trice ended up making the motion to approve the two water-related items, and Commissioner Kyle Battie seconded it, with the 5-0 vote of approval following.