WYNNE — The first building is nearly complete on the site of the Wynne wastewater treatment plant.
The plant was destroyed by the March 2023 Wynne tornado.
Wynne Water Utilities General Manager Blake Marotti said a walk through was recently completed of the administration building.
“We’ve got a few little odds and ends stuff, mostly cosmetic things, nothing big. They’re going to hand that building off to us probably within the next two months and then the maintenance building is following right behind it,” Marotti said. “They did request an additional 60 days on the contract just due to rain delays and a few other things that have gone on. … With all the construction going with the main treatment process, we’re not just chomping at the bit to get in there just really fast.
“I did allow them a 60-day extension on their contract,” he added. “They don’t think it will take 60 days. They just want a little bit of leeway so they don’t get themselves into a bind. That’s going to be end of July.”
Marotti said vertical construction will soon begin on the wastewater treatment plant building itself. He talks about the timeline of the project.
“When you have a technical project of this magnitude and throw on top of that trying to get all your reimbursement funding from FEMA, it just creates hurdles that you have to jump through,” he said. “Just the design phase of that plant itself took a pretty long time. Any time you have to deal with a real tehcnical project like this, you can expect to see long lead times and delays and things like that. We’re finally making some good headway. We’re starting to see light at the end of the tunnel finally.”
The wastewater treatment plant rebuild is expected to be completed by August 2027.
