Beatrice Board of Public Works recommends engineering agreement on bridge water main

BEATRICE – The Nebraska Department of Transportation is planning a replacement of the West Court Street Bridge in Beatrice over the Big Blue River, tentatively in 2027.

The Beatrice Water Department hopes to get a jump on a project associated with that. The Board of Public Works Monday recommended an engineering services agreement to relocate a large water main, attached to the side of the bridge….eventually boring it under the riverbed.

Water Superintendent Rob Mierau says approval of the agreement allows preliminary work to get started promptly.  "That line is attached to the north side of the bridge and we'd be putting that in as a main underground. We're going to bore that. The agreement is to allow the engineering services to begin, essentially yet this month...get some things out of the way so we can head into the spring. We've got about $350,000 budgeted for that project. Probably going to affix to that main from down First Street a little bit to the north so we can get the right angle, depending on where we start boring in."

BPW General Manager Tobias Tempelmeyer says it’s not the first time such a project to bore a line under the Big Blue has been done. "It's a similar project to what we did eight years ago, on the South Sixth Street bridge. Again, that one was attached to the bridge as well...and we did a project where we removed that one off the bridge and bored it in on the east side of the bridge down there...so, a similar project."

The public works board recommended the mayor and city council approve the master agreement for engineering services with Olsson, Inc.