Middletown authorizes design proposal for raw water main replacement amid challenging terrain

The Board of Estimate authorized the city to accept a proposal from engineering firm Clark Patterson Lee for design and inspection services for the raw water main replacement Phase 1a, running from Kinch Pond to Greenville Turnpike.

Unidentified Speaker 1 moved the authorization and Rodriguez seconded; the motion passed by voice vote. Unidentified Speaker 3, who presented the project, described significant construction challenges: much of the alignment runs through woods and farms, will require deep excavations ("30 some of it is 35 foot deep") and in some locations tunneling will be part of the design. The presenter said the replacement pipe is expected to be a larger diameter — "hopefully, we're gonna be putting a 36 inch diameter to replace the 24 inch" — to increase available capacity during drought conditions.

The board discussed funding sources for an initial project account. The presenter said an initial $1,000,000 would be funded from ARPA, and referenced a proposed EFC grant noted in the transcript as "5,000,000 or 60% of the total project, whichever is less." The transcript also contains additional spoken references to EPA and to a New York State DWSRF loan, but some dollar figures were unclear in the recording. The board approved proceeding with the contract authorization and establishing the project account; staff will return with final funding confirmations and contract documents.

Because several funding figures were garbled in the verbal readback, the article avoids restating unclear amounts and recommends review of the official proposal and contract attachments for exact grant and loan numbers.