Digging of Well #7 began Tuesday afternoon
The digging of the City of Mountain Lake’s newest well – Well #7 – began Tuesday afternoon, September 2. The well is being dug on the former Boldt’s Watercare property site at the north intersection of Nickel Street and 10th Street North, adjacent to Cottonwood County Road #29. To reach the current well house, located in the southwest corner of Mountain Lake City Cemetery, a new raw water line will be placed under 10th Street North, and follow 9th Street to the well house location.
The digging of a new well has been a top Utility Commission priority. Earlier attempts to locate a suitable source of water on city property ended up unsuccessful. In 2013, the Utility purchased the former Boldt’s Watercare after test boring proved there was water on the property.
This project was bumped up to urgent when production at two of the city’s wells dropped this past January 2014 – and still has not returned to normal.
GM Contracting of Lake Crystal is the general contractor, while subcontractors for the project are Thein Well Company of Spicer, Kuehl Electric of St. James and MR Paving of New Ulm. GM Contracting was the lone bidder on the project, coming in at $723,257.23 – or 30% above the engineer’s estimate. A change order in the project, however, reduced the bid amount by $58,775.15. This reduction was due to the contractor opting to use horizontal directional boring, which is less costly than an open trench and means less traffic control costs. The bid amount was further reduced by having city staff – and not the contractor – complete the tree removal necessary for the project.
The digging of the well is expected to completed this fall, but it will not be operational until early 2015, after electrical and computer technology, as well as other related work is finalized.
In the photographs below, Thein Well Company workers begin the drilling.
