Lawton ready to launch new industrial waterline project

Infrastructure work to support the Westwin Elements pilot plant and other potential industrial entities will continue, after the City Council awarded a $1.917 million water main project last week.

Council members awarded the contract for what is known as Phase II water main installation to Southwest Water Works, the low bidder on a project that engineers had estimated at $3.168 million. The project will be a “loop,” new 12-inch water main that will connect to a new 20-inch main installed along Southwest 97th Street, then west on Bishop Road. The new project will add water main along Southwest 112th Street from Bishop Road to West Lee Boulevard, then east along West Lee Boulevard back to Southwest 97th Street.

City officials said the result will be a looped system that will supply water to all tenants in that acreage, including the Westwin cobalt-nickel refinery pilot plant that is starting operation.

M&T Septic & Backhoe completed the 20-inch water main installation in late March, work the City of Lawton facilitated by have materials already on site.

Whisenhunt said the water main work in Phase II had been intended to be part of a larger project that would have included a lift station with a capacity of 2.5 million gallons a day, and a force main to connect the west industrial site to the city’s sanitary sewer system. That sewer work has since been divided into its own project, city officials said.

Southwest Water Works’ $1,917,525 bid was one of eight submitted for the water main project that is expected to be completed within 170 days. Bids ranged from $1.92 million to $3.7 million, with an engineering estimate of $3,168,222.

The city’s infrastructure work is part of an incentive package for Westwin, which has said it is considering Lawton for placement of its full-scale refinery.