LAWTON – The City Council authorized additional funding for the Gondola Lake Dam rehabilitation project and for the computerized system that monitors and regulates operation of the city’s water network.
The council approved a six-figure change order for the Water SCADA Improvement Project undertaken by Control Panels USA.
The council previously approved amendments that provided for an engineering assessment, proposed enhancements, and final design for improvements to the water Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. That system includes the water distribution system, the Medicine Park Water Treatment Plant and the Southeast Water Treatment Plant.
The SCADA system is used to control and monitor operations of the water treatment plants, pump stations, and elevated water storage facilities, Public Utilities Director Rusty Whisenhunt related. The current SCADA system uses Windows XP platform and is “obsolete, as software updates are no longer supported,” he said.
The change order approved Oct. 22 is “necessary to complete this project,” Whisenhunt told the council. “The current fiber that connects the Southeast Water treatment Plant to the Wastewater Treatment Plan is deficient.” New fiber is needed to “create a viable connection between the plants for the SCADA system to function properly.”
The $123,393 change order increased the contract price to $6,235,883.
The project is being financed with $1.2 million from a 2019 wastewater capital improvement program and a $5 million Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan, records reflect.
In a separate matter, the bill for engineering services that will set the stage for rehabilitation of the Gondola Lake Dam at Lake Lawtonka is nearing half a million dollars.
The Lawton City Council on Oct. 22 approved a $336,584 amendment to the master services agreement with Jacobs Engineering Group, which was hired by the council in June 2023 to perform preliminary design work on renovation of the century-old dam. A previous amendment to the agreement, for $150,000, was approved by the council in February.
According to Whisenhunt the design work is 90% complete.
The city-owned dam is approximately 100 years old and is used “to create a small tilling pool just downstream” of the lake,” Whisenhunt said. The dam’s overflow spillway is damaged “and requires rehabilitation,” he said.
Jacobs Engineering Group is developing a “high-level condition summary” of the dam, a “feasibility assessment” on whether to repair or replace the dam at the same location, and a cost estimate, Whisenhunt said.
The intent of the evaluation is “to assist the City of Lawton in making an informed decision to either retrofit the existing dam or replace it,” Whisenhunt said. The scope also includes assisting the City of Lawton with two American Rescue Plan (ARPA) State Designated grants awarded to this project, he said.
Detailed design, analysis, and criteria development will be completed at a later phase of the project, he said.
The total estimated cost of the Gondola Lake Dam project is $3 million, $2 million of which will be financed from a state-designated American Rescue Plan Act grant, Whisenhunt said.