A special meeting of the Virgin Valley Water District was held on Friday, Nov. 13 to review six bids received for replacing waterlines on Kitty Hawk Road, Marilyn Parkway and Mesa Blvd. The winning bid of $701,319.97 was submitted by Valley Underground of Mesquite.

Contractors and developers participate in a work session on proposed new VVWD rules for water works. Photo by Burton Weast.

Contractors and developers participate in a work session on proposed new VVWD rules for water works. Photo by Burton Weast.

The bid amount was nearly $70,000 over the staff estimate for the work, which brought a question from Director Bubba Smith concerning why all the bids were all over the district estimate. “Have we identified the source of the overage,” Smith asked District Manager Kevin Brown.  Brown told Smith and the board that as they worked on the bid “We increased the scope of the project which increased the cost.”

After discussion, the board approved the bid unanimously.

The meeting then became a work session as the board and a room full of contractors, developers and staff discussed the newest draft of district’s design standards and specifications for construction of water projects.  Manager Brown led the discussion noting that the last update of the specifications was done over five years ago.  Brown also said that this time the district was updating and rewriting the rules and not just “adding tabs to existing sections.”

Brown noted that many of the specifications were outdated, including one that required plans to be submitted on “floppy disk.”  Brown and VVWD staff then began a section by section review of the new proposed standards.

Issues that were raised included increasing minimum water pressure standards in areas of the city at higher elevation, exclusive use of ductile piping for future water line installations over 12 inches, use of only American made pipe in the district and new rules for any subdivision with more than 10 dwelling units.

After several hours of discussion, the board agreed to hold another work session to try and resolve any issues with the proposed specifications.