Betty Anne Rogers, executive director of the Warwick Sewer Authority, couldn’t believe her eyes as the authority opened bids to overhaul the forced main sewer line that ruptured early this summer spilling waste water into Warwick Pond.

The authority knew the aging line from the Cedar Swamp pumping station to a collection point off Airport Road in the vicinity of Hallene Avenue, a total of 13,000 linear feet, was in need of repair. The engineering firm of GM2 Associates estimated the work to cost $4.6 million. A schedule for the project had been worked out. The break confirmed the authority’s conclusion that the line was failing. If it had just held on for a few more months, the pond would not have been impacted.

Then came the opening of bids to line the full length of the forced main and Rogers was in for another hit.

The Green Mountain Pipeline, LLC bid was opened first. The company that performed the emergency repairs to the collapse of an interceptor pipeline buried 20 feet below Sandy Lane, bid $13,935,935 for the work or three times the engineering projection. Rogers was stunned. There had to be a mistake. Then the only bid from Insituform Technologies, LLC was opened. It was $20,000 more than the Green Mountain bid.

It was sticker shock.

“I’m thinking no way,” she said.

The job is of high priority. It has to be done.

In fact, in order not to delay the work, a bypass line for the length of the forced main has been installed. The bypass – a black pipe running on airport property and then the north side of Airport Road – is in place. Just having it there is costing the authority about $50,000 a month.

In context of the cost of the project and the nightmare of another break, Rogers looks at it as good insurance. It can be pressed into service should there be another break and it won’t delay the project when it gets started.

The questions are: why was the project estimate so far off base? how is the authority going to finance the work and how to proceed?

In an effort to gain confidence in the numbers, the authority has retained an independent engineering firm to review the initial estimate and the bids. The authority is also going back to Archibald.

“We’re talking to the engineers and they need to do their homework,” she said.

Rogers cites inflation and the supply chain as being partially responsible for the spike in costs. With so much of the materials used to slip line the pipe related to petroleum, she understands some prices have increased. To reline the pipe, a felt-like sock impregnated with resin is fed into the pipe after it has been thoroughly inspected and cleaned. It is then pressurized with hot water that pushes it to the wall of the pipe and activates its curing.  This, in effect, creates a new pipe inside the old one without having to unearth it.

The authority is opting for a “structural liner” for the pipe, which Rogers explained, is more heavy duty than a thinner skin and is designed to last decades.

As for supply line delays, Rogers said the authority is experiencing 36-week long delays in the delivery of ejectors for its small pumping stations.

“It must get done,” Rogers said of the forced main. But where’s the money going to come from?

Rogers is working on a plan to bring to the authority finance committee on Jan. 17 and then to the full board on Jan. 26. She is looking to the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank for a bond, a request requiring City Council approval. At this time she’s uncertain of the amount. There are other projects the authority is working on, such as the Oakland Beach interceptor and might it make sense and save on the cost of issuance to wrap multiple projects into a single bond rather than returning?

She sees no alternative to taking on the work.

“If you have a problem you flip the switch; you’re doing the right thing.”

Will it mean increased sewer rates?

“I feel we’re in very good shape,” she said citing the retirement of debt as prior bonds are paid off. She said there is “wiggle room to take on more debt” without calling on the customers to pay more.

Is this the largest challenge she has faced since taking lead of the authority almost two years ago?

“This is the most concerning for me,” she said. “I don’t want to feel comfortable in the position.”

She’s confident.

Rogers said she has a good team from a dedicated staff to a supportive board of directors.