Northampton to awards Water Main Contract for Courthouse Road Project to Onancock company

The Northampton County Board of Supervisors awarded an Onancock Company with a contract to extend a new water main along Courthouse Road in Eastville at Tuesday night’s work session. Underground Connection will construct the extension, which is a critical infrastructure component needed to support ongoing construction of the new middle and high school complex.

According to Public Works Director Chris Thomas, the project involves installing approximately 3,000 linear feet of 8-inch ductile iron water main along the VDOT right-of-way. The work includes service reconnections, accommodations for future service, and connections to existing mains at both ends. The project also calls for the abandonment of the current, undersized 4-inch main currently serving the area.

Three sealed bids were received by the April 16 deadline. Underground Connections of Onancock submitted the lowest bid at $825,000—well below the engineer’s estimate of $1,376,540. Other bids included $1,083,000 from Trident Civil, Inc., and $1,690,000 from Kevcor Contracting Corp.

Thomas noted that although the original project design called for high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe, it was revised to use ductile iron pipe in accordance with requirements from the Town of Eastville, which will ultimately own the line. The change to ductile iron significantly increased project costs.

When questioned by Supervisor Oliver Bennett asked about the reputation of the company, Thomas  confirmed another company who bid on the project told him Underground Connections is fully qualified to perform the work.