The North Texas Municipal Water District requested reauthorization because construction on the plant’s improvement projects has been delayed due to issues with the bidding process.
What happened
At their Sept. 2 meeting, Plano Planning and Zoning commissioners authorized a two-year extension for the plant’s revised site plan, which was initially approved in 2023.
Mark Simon, NTMWD director of engineering, said when they bid the project in 2024, the contract totaled nearly $300 million.
While the total price will remain around that cost, Simon said they are currently planning to bid the improvements in smaller pieces to spread out the work and cost.
“One of the challenges with the project ... [is] we have to keep the plant operational at all times,” Simon said. “[The plant] does treat 50% of the flow for Plano and roughly 25-30% of the flow from Richardson.”
Simon said another challenge is NTMWD has to change some of the Oncor Electric power feeds that go into the plant, which must be coordinated through Oncor and the contractor.
Some context
NTMWD completed the first phase of improvements to the treatment plant in November 2021 to improve the plant’s peak flow capacity, and the upcoming phase aims to better manage and treat flow during weather events.
In August 2021, Plano City Council previously denied a request tied to building a NTMWD administrative facility on the land along the east side of Los Rios Boulevard.
One more thing
Upgrades for the plant are set to begin once NTMWD is able to award the project to a construction manager, according to city documents.
