The Champaign City Council will vote on whether to accept a bid from Duce Construction Company for the city’s 2013 sewer rehabilitation project at its meeting Tuesday. The project is expected to be completed April 30, 2014.

The lowest bid for the project is approximately $500,000, almost $100,000 less than the city engineer’s estimate. Duce was also the lowest bidder for the 2012 project. The plan is to repair storm sewers and unexpected emergency work on storm and sanitary sewers. 

According to the report to city council, blockages will be removed throughout the city to reduce flooding. There will be a total of 33 project locations across the city, including 25 repairs and eight storm sewer extensions. The sewers were identified by the previously completed inspection and complaints from residents and business owners. Sinkholes may occur at locations with missing pipe.

The adequate funds come from the storm sewer rehabilitation project and the sanitary sewer rehabilitation project. The city’s engineering division has budgeted 1,790 hours for project management, construction observation and design of next year’s project.

Dennis Schmidt, Urbana Public Works director, said this project will provide job opportunities to minority employees in Champaign. 

Although the project will mainly focus on repairing and extending the sewers, the contract also covers unexpected emergency repair work that may occur during the project. 

Earn can be reached at [email protected].