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Ocala, FL 34482

In The News

City awards contract to fix pipe problem


Local firm GWP Construction Inc. will tackle the problem of polluted runoff dumping into Silver River.

Bruce Phillips, the city of Ocala engineer, poses near the area where the "monster pipe" drains storm water runoff into the watershed of the Silver River just off East State Road 40 in Silver Springs on Nov. 3.

By Susan Latham Carr
Staff writer


Published: Monday, November 10, 2008 at 6:30 a.m.  OCALA —

By January, the city of Ocala could begin fixing the "monster pipe" problem that pollutes the
Silver River.  The city awarded the Ocala firm of GWP Construction Inc. a $1.3 million contract to build a new retention pond and expand and retrofit two existing ones to keep the storm water, oil and debris that washes off State Road 40 from dumping into Half Mile Creek. The creek empties into the Silver River.  The contract price came in $2 million under the original $3.3 million estimate and $1.3 million under a revised estimate for the project's construction. "I had 100 bidders on that project," City Engineer Bruce Phillips said. "Construction is so slow I think a lot of contractors are doing it to keep their payrolls going to keep their key people." There are five drainage basins along State Road 40 from Southwest 25th Avenue to the creek, which is just past the Silver Springs Attraction. Four of those basins are in the city limits and one is in Marion County. The city's portion runs from Southwest 25th Avenue east to Wal-Mart. When the state Department of Transportation widened SR 40 to four lanes in the 1960s, it did not provide water quality treatment but, instead, built retention areas, Phillips said. The city permitted and constructed 80 percent of those. Bruce Ackerman/Staff photographer Bruce Phillips, the city of Ocala engineer, poses near the area where the "monster pipe" drains storm water runoff into the watershed of the Silver River just off East State Road 40 in Silver Springs on Nov. 3.  More...