City hires Cochran for Walnut Street lift-station study, approves $16,920 contract

The Board of Public Works for the City of Washington voted Tuesday to hire Cochran to evaluate the Walnut Street Lift Station and the downtown collection system, approving a proposed contract price of $16,920.

City staff and a Cochran consultant told the board the study will analyze current pump and force-main capacity, examine storage alternatives at the lift station and estimate costs for upgrades intended to reduce backups experienced on Front Street. "If we can pump more, that reduces the opportunity for backups down along Front Street," the Cochran consultant said.

The nut of the work is hydraulic and system modeling: Cochran will compile pumping data, estimate gallons-per-minute under worst-case conditions, evaluate whether a larger force main and larger pumps are needed and produce cost estimates for alternatives. The consultant cautioned the project must avoid moving the problem to the east side by sending excessive flows into the downstream collection system.

Board members asked about schedule and budget. The consultant said he would like "to have a good plan in place by the end of the year," with possible preliminary information in three months and a more complete plan toward year end. Staff said final construction costs were unknown and that a second treatment plant on the west side would be a higher-level option to consider only after the study produced concrete recommendations: "Maybe the outcome of this study ... would be the recommendations and the cost of those recommendations," the consultant said.

The board approved Cochran's professional services proposal and directed staff to forward the contract to the city council for final processing. No construction or budget appropriation was approved as part of the contract; staff said recommended projects and cost estimates will be returned for committee and council review.

City staff also tied the study to ongoing Front Street work, noting recent construction discoveries — including a bowed sewer alignment that required the water line to be rerouted — and the need for further coordination with Union Pacific on a collapsed section under the south rail. Staff and the consultant emphasized potential constraints such as odor risks if storage were added at the lift station and the need to model the system holistically before recommending capital work.