The City of Lockport is bonding an additional $1.3 million to finance the Gulf Interceptor Sewer project, whose estimated cost has risen to $9.1 million from $7.8 million. The increase is due to a new requirement on municipalities receiving state grants to put up 30% of the project cost as contingency.
To date, the sewer interceptor project has received about $6 million in state and federal grant funding. The rest of the tab will be covered with an interest-free loan that the city secured from the state.
The project is replacement of one of the main interceptor sewer lines in the city.
The line runs north and south of Niagara Street, where, coincidentally, a few years ago the state Department of Environmental Conservation was doing a remediation project. As part of that project, DEC relocated a part of the sewer main needing replacement, according to Mike Marino, consultant engineer with Nussbaumer & Clark.
DEC needed the Gulf Creek clear of the sewer pipe on the south side of Niagara Street as they cleaned up the site, and agreed to replace the portion of sewer line from its southern tip to Gulf Creek all the way to Niagara Street, Marino said. That left the city with slightly less than 1 mile of sewer line to replace.
The city secured a state grant for that through DEC, which is asking for a 30% markup in the project budget “because of the way the market was during the pandemic,” Marino said.
“They asked us … in the revised design report, to update the construction cost numbers, and (those costs) escalated a little bit,” he said, noting that the full cost may be less than the bonded amount, $9.1 million, but the city must show it able to pay the balance. A large portion of that bond will be paid back with the grant money, he added.