City plans to fix major water line

Grand Coulee will go out to bid on its Midway Avenue water project, the replacement of about 500 feet of line.

The project will replace lines across Midway Ave. from Jess Ford, to Four Corners and to the Catholic Church. It will also replace lines from Safeway to the TeePee Drive-In.

The city council gave Mayor Chris Christopherson the OK to execute a contract with Gray & Osborne, the city’s engineering firm.

The project estimate, made a year ago, was for $100 per foot, or about $50,000.

The job would be advertised, city officials said, Feb. 19, and bids opened March 5. The council should choose a successful bidder at its meeting March 18.

A second project, which would be bid separately, would provide a new 6-inch water line to East Heights, a part of the city that long has had a water problem.

That project would cover 1,700 feet and, at $100 a foot, cost about $170,000. The city hasn’t determined when bids for that project will go out, City Clerk Carol Boyce stated, but Gray & Osborne has already done the design work on the East Heights line.