By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer
MONMOUTH BEACH — The planned completion date for the massive $48 million expansion project of the Two Rivers Water Reclamation Authority is now nearly twice as far off as the revised projection in December.
Back then, officials estimated the completion date to be 114 days behind schedule; the new planned completion day is 224 days past the originally planned conclusion.
Michael A. Gianforte, executive director of the authority, said the project now is expected to be substantially completed by Oct. 27.
It was originally anticipated the project would be completed by March 17, he said.
Gianforte, speaking after the authority’s May meeting, said he wasn’t all that concerned about the delay in the work.
"We’re getting a quality project," he said.
He added that the contractor, PKF Mark III, has the opportunity to narrow the days of delay before the currently anticipated Oct. 27 completion.
But, he cautioned, he didn’t expect to regain 100 days.
Penalties are built into the sewer authority’s contract with PKF, but the extent of them won’t be known until the work is actually completed.
"We’ll be operating our equipment by the end of October, Gianforte said. "We’ll be doing the punch list until February."
The expansion project was designed as a build-out to carry the authority to 2020. The sewer plant currently is permitted by the state at 11.4 million gallons a day. When the work on the upgraded and expanded plant is completed, it will be permitted at 13.83 million gallons a day.
The authority was founded in 1965 and had its first flow in 1971. It has six member towns — Monmouth Beach, Fair Haven, Little Silver, Shrewsbury, Oceanport and West Long Branch. It also has six customer towns — Sea Bright, Rumson, Red Bank, Eatontown, Shrewsbury Township and part of Tinton Falls, plus Fort Monmouth and Camp Charles Wood.