Bristol Sewer Project Moves Forward

Water and Sewer Superintendent Jeff Chartier, right, discusses a long-delayed sewer project with Bristol selectmen including Carroll Brown, left, and Town Administrator Christina Goodwin. (Screenshot)

BRISTOL — A long-delayed sewer improvement project has moved another step forward with the approval of a $2,939,000 bid for its construction. Selectmen on November 21 awarded the contract to Sargent Construction of Fremont.

The town had contacted 15 general contractors, with 12 of them asking for bid documents, according to Steve Smith of Underwood Engineers during a briefing on November 7. Sargent Construction was the low bidder, with the next-lowest bid coming from NorthEast Earth Mechanics of Pittsfield, at $3.95 million.

“Sargent’s bid number was higher than what our budget previously allowed,” Smith said, “but obviously that budget was set some time ago, and as you know, things have increased.”

When voters approved of the work in 2019, it was part of a much-larger project that would have extended municipal sewer lines to Newfound Lake. Estimated at $20 million, selectmen assured residents that it would not go forward if there was insufficient grant funding to make the project affordable.

In March 2022, Underwood Engineers, which had been designing the project, recommended a scaled-back project pegged at $16.9 million. Under that plan, the town would extend the sewer on Lake Street by 5,000 feet, carrying it from Millstream Park to the intersection with Riverdale Road; replace the Central Street pump station; and upgrade 2,500 feet of the downtown force mains, pressurized pipelines that carry wastewater from a pump to a discharge point.