THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250499
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The City Council gave permission Tuesday to negotiate construction contracts with seven firms that submitted low bids to complete the Lake Gaston pipeline.
The contracts, which came in $12 million under budget, will cost city taxpayers at least $91 million. Most of the money has already been collected from residents' water bills, officials said. The city will issue bonds for the rest.
Council members, though cautious about continued opposition from North Carolina and the Roanoke River basin, savored the moment Tuesday. Early this month, the city received permission to begin construction when a federal judge upheld the secretary of Commerce's decision to allow the project and a federal agency issued the last required permit.
The seven contractors will build the 74 miles of the pipeline not yet constructed; install a system to move the water through the pipe; and complete a pumping station at the lake, which straddles the Virginia-North Carolina border.
Council members spent 10 minutes praising each other and city staff members for pursuing the pipeline project despite more than 12 years of legal battles.
``It's been a great day for the city,'' Council member W.W. Harrison Jr. said Tuesday.
But they are clearly still nervous about the pipeline's future.
``Carolina keeps insisting they're going to do something,'' council member John A. Baum, a member of the council's Water Task Force, warned his colleagues. ILLUSTRATION: PROPOSED CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE
Nov. 20 City signs formal contracts
Nov. 27 City gives contractors go-ahead to proceed with
construction
December Preliminary site work conducted along pipeline's
76-mile route
Jan. 1996 Equipment and supplies ordered for construction
projects
March 1996 Work on all seven contracts under way
April 1998 Norfolk completes expansion of water treatment
facilities to handle Lake Gaston water and the pipeline begins
pumping water to Hampton Roads
by CNB