The construction contract for Waste Management’s major upgrade and expansion of its McCourtney Road Transfer Station has been approved by Nevada County Supervisors. That’s over 20-million dollars, plus a ten-percent contingency amount of over two-million dollars. The Board also approved a general fund loan of up to three-million dollars to cover any potential cash flow shortages. The county’s Solid Waste Program Manager, David Garcia, also told the Board how staff managed to bring down the cost. He said the timing for the original bids couldn’t have been worse and were significantly higher than anticipated…

click to listen to David Garcia

Garcia said the state mandate to also recycle food waste has also impacted costs of the project. So, Garcia said they found ways to reduce design expenses and re-bid the project in November. That resulting in the winning bid being about four-million dollars less than the original lowest one. Supervisor Hardy Bullock was impressed with the efforts…

click to listen to Hardy Bullock

The project is scheduled to begin this spring and be completed by late 2024. Among the improvements is expanding the entry road, doubling scale capacity, and building a large, new, indoor building that will be able to handle a variety of waste streams.