Woods Cross awards $4.2 million water tank contract after low bid topped the bond estimate

Woods Cross's council awarded the contract to replace the city's 1500 South water tank to Patriot Construction for $4,217,641.34 on Aug. 6, 2026, according to the approved minutes. ^[4]

Council Member Julie Checketts moved to adopt Resolution 2026-1011 and Council Member Wally Larrabee seconded. The minutes say all members voted in favor by roll call. ^[4]

The rebid

The city posted a rebid of the project on June 1, 2026, with bids due June 16. The posting described a 1.8-million-gallon concrete reservoir and said the city reserved the right to negotiate with the lowest responsible bidder. ^[1][2]

Bid above the estimate

At the July 7 meeting, staff reviewed how the Series 2025 water bond would be spent. The minutes describe an $8,000,000 bond authorization, including a $500,000 contingency, from an Aug. 19, 2025 meeting. ^[3]

The minutes list the tank's bond estimate as $4,012,236 and its low bid as $4,827,527. They put the project's current total estimate at $5,277,527, with engineering and other costs expected to exceed $450,000. ^[3]

The minutes also quote the administrator as saying the bid came in "$27,000 over budget." They don't show how that figure was calculated. ^[3]

Staff asked to move $900,000 toward the tank: $400,000 from the 1100 West waterline project, which the minutes say was running about $406,650 under its $1,200,000 estimate, plus the $500,000 contingency. The council said it was comfortable appropriating the funds; no motion is recorded. ^[3]

The minutes say the goal was a 1.5-million-gallon tank, with the engineering firm JUB hoping for about 1.8 million gallons. ^[3]

The award

The Aug. 6 minutes say the council had directed staff on July 7 to put the $400,000 and the $500,000 contingency toward the tank, with the goal of maximizing its volume toward 1.5 million gallons. ^[4]

The $4,217,641.34 award is about $610,000 less than the $4,827,527 low bid listed in the July 7 minutes. The Aug. 6 packet explains much of that difference, below. ^[3][4][5]

What changed in the scope

The Aug. 6 special session packet includes an Aug. 3 memo from the city's engineering firm, J-U-B. It says the project was rebid June 23 with four bidders, and that the firm and the city then modified the design and met the contractor and its shoring subcontractor to reach $4,217,641.34 on a revised bid form. To stay within the city-provided budget of $4,912,236, the memo says, the tank was reduced from 1.8 to 1.5 million gallons by moving two walls and eliminating six columns. ^[5]

The revised bid table sets the original total at $4,827,527.88 and the revised total at $4,217,641.34, a difference of $609,886.54 by the Ledger's subtraction. The difference is not a saving on the same work: the revised table drops the tank mixers, the building enclosure and the generator fuel tank, and cuts the tank item from $2,052,136.80 to $1,760,517.36. The table also notes that a $4,205,324.84 total shown for the contractor's value engineering proposal was calculated incorrectly. ^[5]

The memo's project estimate adds the revised bid to engineering, easement, utility and other costs for a $4,842,782 subtotal and $69,454 of contingency, matching the $4,912,236 total. The memo says the estimate assumes a 14-month construction period, a fuel contingency of no more than $60,000 and successful easement negotiations, so it is not a guaranteed deadline or cost. The draft resolution in the packet, which has blank signature and voting lines, would award the bid at $4,217,641.00, 34 cents less than the contract figure, and proceed with a total not-to-exceed amount of $4,912,236, with any increase returning to the council. The agreement form in the packet has no signatures. The approved Aug. 18 minutes record only the contract award, so the Ledger treats the $4,912,236 figure as the staff's proposed ceiling, not a confirmed adoption. The earlier $27,000 statement from July remains unexplained. ^[5][4]