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WEIRTON -- After awarding the contract last month for the construction of its wastewater treatment plant expansion, the Weirton Sanitary Board is ready to move forward with the project.
During the board's meeting Thursday, Utilities Director A.D. "Butch" Mastrantoni announced a ceremonial groundbreaking is being scheduled for April 11.
"The balance of the activities will begin at 2 p.m.," Mastrantoni said.
The expansion project is designed to grow the treatment capacity of the facility from its current 4 million gallons per day to 8 million gallons per day. Triton Construction of St. Albans, W.Va., was awarded the contract on Feb. 15, with a bid of $37,213,000.
Jesse Alden, of the Thrasher Group, noted the final financial package for the project had been completed on March 5, addressing another step in the process to commence the project.
"The project has officially closed on all the financing," Alden said.
Prior to the groundbreaking, on March 26, the board will hold a pre-construction meeting with all of the involved contractors.
While ground will be broken in the coming weeks, Alden explained it could be some time before any major progress is noticeable, explaining it could take approximately a year to manufacture some of the components to be included.
"We're probably looking at about two years' worth of construction," Alden said.
Mastrantoni also explained to the board the project, which he referred to as one of "the largest public works projects" done in the city, will provide approximately $800,000 to the city's general fund through building permit fees and Building and Occupation taxes.
Planning for the wastewater treatment plant expansion project, as well as one planned for Weirton's water treatment plant, began in January 2019, following word of an industrial company looking at locating its operations to the city, with a need of up to 500,000 gallons of sanitary treatment per day.
At the time, officials noted the treatment plants, originally built in the 1960s, had little room for additional treatment capacity, and would need an expansion to properly serve that, or any other, large development.