More Sidney powerlines to be placed underground

The city plans to bury around 50,000 feet of electric lines within the next three to five years.

Sidney had already buried tens of thousands of feet of electric line within the last five years, but decided to consider some new options in moving forward.

The electric department solicited bids earlier this month for a master contractor for boring (drilling into the earth for underground conversion) as well as for boring machines themselves. The city wished to determine whether buying its own machine and completing the work itself, or hiring one contractor to do all the city’s boring work would be more cost-effective.

The city received two bids for the boring machine. The lowest bid came from Ditch Witch at around $200,000, while the second came in at around $295,000.

The city only received one proposal from Nienhueser Construction for a master contractor for between $16 and $22 per foot of boring. The company took exception to a two year contract and requested a one year agreement.

Sidney’s electric department recommended re-bidding the master contractor agreement in order to receive more bids, or to go ahead and buy the boring machine.

The city has already done a large amount of boring through contractors, but thought it would save time to at least have an ongoing agreement with a contractor. The city would save quite a bit of money buying the machine itself.

“Obviously, there’s costs involved with boring, even if we do it,” said electric superintendent Mike Palmer.

These costs include maintenance and other materials needed for boring.

Sidney mayor Wendall Gaston expressed concern about city workers operating a boring machine and wondered how much expertise this would take.

“It’s nothing that I feel we can’t do, if that’s the way we go,” Palmer said.

There are many utilities underground that workers will have to avoid, Gaston pointed out.

“Maybe the liability is better placed on somebody else, just in case,” he said.

Sidney’s soil conditions can make boring more difficult than it would be in other areas.

“Sometimes you’re in perfect soil, sometimes you’re in rock, sometimes you’re in sand,” Palmer said.

Gaston suggested accepting the one year contract from Nienhueser Construction, just to see how it goes.

Both public services director John Hehnke and Palmer felt that a two year contract should be the minimum, because of the amount of boring the city must do in the next few years.

In this budget year, the city will complete the east downtown underground conversion.

It will have to bury tens of thousands more feet of pipe within the next few years to complete the underground conversion.

“That’s stuff where the money starts coming into play,” Palmer said. “We’ve got a lot of boring that is going to have to be completed in the next two or three years and we have to balance the costs.”

After the storm last September, a few major pole lines were compromised, including the major line on 11th Ave. The city now needs to bury them.

“Essentially, from the railroad track to Toledo we need to get bored in the next couple of years or put new poles up, one of the two,” Palmer said. “It’s going to be a major budget item no matter which way we go. We’re going to have to spend some money one way or another in the next couple years.”

Palmer suggested that the council had time to mull over the situation before budget discussions this summer. The council decided to table the discussion until the next meeting, to elicit the input of councilmen Mark Nienhueser and Joe Arterburn, who were absent from Tuesday’s meeting.