Riley County commissioners approved an additional 19 days for improvements to be completed on the University Park sewer rehabilitation project Thursday.
The project cost $2.6 million and 45 percent of the project is funded by a federal grant.
Sam Johnson of BG Consultants told commissioners he hopes the project is complete before Christmas of this year.
“We’re about 31 percent complete of the work,” Johnson said.
University Park is a small community east of Riley right by the waters of Tuttle Creek Lake. The community was originally founded in the early 1960s after the dam was put in and set up for Kansas State University professors and other faculty to have weekend cabins.
At the time it was restricted to that demographic, but not many of them bought cabins and instead lower-income buyers took advantage of the cheaper prices.
During a sewer system check in 2013, it was discovered there were cracks in the system and an emergency order on the sewer was issued by the county.
The additional days of work add $77,391.65 to the cost of the project, due to repairs that became more extensive than anticipated, or the depth of the line was different than bid. However, since the project bid for less than the engineer’s cost of the project, there is room for the additional costs.
