WINNSBORO – Following an executive session on May 27, members of the Fairfield Joint Water and Sewer System Commission voted unanimously to accept a contract proposed by GMC (Goodwyn Mills Cawood) Engineering to provide engineering and design services for the county’s wastewater plant proposed to discharge into the Broad River.
GMC has offices in Columbia, Charlotte, and Greenville.
Only two engineering firms responded to the Commission’s RFP (Request for Proposal) – American Engineering and GMC. At a previous JWSS meeting, the Commission’s technical committee reviewed and scored the two firms’ applications and recommended GMC to the Commission.
Attorneys for American Engineering, the company that has provided engineering services for the Commission since 2022, reviewed the scoring, according to Winnsboro Mayor John McMeekin, who chairs the Commission, but after the review, no protest was made by American Engineering.
American Engineering is currently contracted by the Commission to complete the engineering for the Winnsboro connector which consists of the regional pump station on Peach Road; the section from that pump station east to the Commerce Center; and two other lines that come from the pump station up Highway 321 to the proposed wastewater treatment plant on the Broad River.
The cost of construction of the Winnsboro Connector, which will include three separate contractors, is somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million, according to FJWSS officials. Ten million of that amount was funded through a SCIIP grant. The remaining $9 – $10 million will be paid from the county’s settlement from Dominion Energy.
GMC will provide engineering services for the remainder of the project to include the main line and the wastewater treatment plant on the Broad. Following completion of the engineering work, the project will be bid out for construction.
Asked about a timetable for completion of the plant, County Administrator Vic Carpenter said that after some delays over the last couple of years, it’s hard to pin down a date.
“I think it might be pushing it to say it would be up and running in three more years,” Carpenter said.
He was also hesitant to nail down a cost estimate for completion of the main line and treatment plant.
A PER (Preliminary Engineering Report) developed by American Engineering two years ago estimated the cost of the system at approximately $50 million.
The Dominion settlement allocated $45 million to the county in 2021 to be used for the FJWSS. According to a commission official, about $33 million remains in the account.
Carpenter was asked if the cost of the system is expected to come in at the PER’s estimated cost.
“It may escalate in price somewhat, but I don’t know to what degree,” Carpenter said. “At the end of the day, we’ve only got so much money, so that may affect some aspects of the design,” he said, “but that’s the case with any project. If it comes in and you can’t afford it, you design something you can afford. But right now, there’s no expectation of changes.” compromising the park’s appeal.
