Mt. Pleasant substation project is complete

The construction of a new substation on North Iris Street in Mt. Pleasant is complete.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Mt. Pleasant Municipal Utilities Board declared the $3 million project complete.

General Manager Jack Hedgecock said that the substation is already functional.

'We've got real load on that substation now, about 2 megawatts, about 20 percent of the town load today,” Hedgecock told the board.

Although the project has been declared complete, there are still some items that the utility plans on completing, including some landscaping and other cosmetic items.

'We should have everything completed in October,” Hedgecock said. 'We've got a couple things to get done on our side, but they're not earth-shattering.”

Hedgecock explained that, as with any project, the utility held out a 5 percent retainage until the end of the project – in this case, $68,167.80 – that will be paid to the contractor within 30 days of the project being accepted.

'That 30-day shot clock begins today,” he said.

He explained that, due to some extra project costs due to some delays, $8,400 would be deducted from the final payment.

'There were some delays that the board had to act on,” Hedgecock said. 'In that change order, we had wording that if those delays cost extra expenses on the community, the contractor, ESCO, would be responsible for this. The engineer calculated 50 extra hours associated with those delays.”

He said that the contractor deferred ordering some core materials too long, causing the delay.

'Some of those items on a good year take 12-15 weeks,” Hedgecock said. 'With COVID in the mix, it's 20-plus weeks. We didn't feel it was appropriate for the community to pay those extra costs.”

The board agreed to release the retainage with the $8,400 deducted from the total, for a final payment of $59,767.80 in 30 days.