It will cost Lehighton over $1.3 million for its storm sewer rehabilitation project.

Borough council on a 5-0 vote agreed Monday to award a contract in the amount of $1.37 million Advanced Pipe Technologies Inc. for its inflow and infiltration project.

Before the vote, borough Manager Dane DeWire said the firm was the low bidder following a bid opening that took place June 27.

DeWire said the same five contractors bid as last month, and that the bids ranged from $1.37 to $2.04 million.

He said it was borough engineer Vanessa Nedrick’s recommendation that it award a contract for drainage area No. 6.

DeWire noted that the borough has $1.55 million through ARPA funding and grants from Sen. Bob Casey’s office so it can afford drainage area No. 6, which is the worst one in the borough.

Council members John Kreitz and David Zimmerman were absent.

Council’s action comes after it voted 5-0 last month to reject the bids that were received for the project.

Estimates for the project came in higher than anticipated, which prompted council to rebid the project at the recommendation of Nedrick.

Nedrick said at that time that the unit prices have gone up significantly, and recommended that the bids be rejected.

At that time, it was noted that the borough had $915,000 in guaranteed funding; however, $851,000 was the previous estimate for just drainage area No. 3, while drainage area No. 6 was just over $1 million.

Councilman Ryan Saunders said at that time he would prefer to utilize the money toward the area that is worse rather than base it on the cost.

The Lehighton Inflow and infiltration Abatement Project consists of the cleaning, televising, and cured in place pipelining of approximately 6 miles of sanitary sewers in the borough.

Work will also include the inspection and rehabilitation of manholes.

For more information, email vanessa.nedrick@rve.com with any questions.

The borough received an additional $500,000 to address its inflow and infiltration matters concerning its sanitary sewer system.

DeWire said the $500,000 is directly through state Sen. Bob Casey’s fiscal year 2024 community project funding.

DeWire said that will give the borough $1.6 million in funding to rehabilitate the system.

Nedrick said that engineering for the project is covered by the grant.

DeWire said the plan is to attack the problem from all sides.

In February, Councilman Steven Hawk said that he, along with Councilwoman Autumn Abelovsky and DeWire met with the Central Carbon Municipal Authority concerning the borough’s Inflow & Infiltration issues.

Hawk said that a lot of the infiltration coming into the plant is from the borough, which is a major concern.

Nedrick said there’s a lot of terra-cotta in the system, and two areas in the borough, zone 3 and zone 6, which provide 80% of the I & I the borough has.

She said if the borough were to take care of those two zones, it would be taking care of 80% of it.

DeWire said addressing the situation could potentially save the borough thousands of dollars per month if it addresses the worst parts of the system.

Nedrick announced at January’s borough council meeting that the borough received the H20 Pennsylvania Water Supply, Sanitary Sewer and Stormwater Projects grant for $611,245.

Nedrick told council the grant can be used for inflow and infiltration abatement throughout the borough and council has three years to spend the grant.