Work is progressing rapidly on the street and sewer project for Eighth and Moore streets in Blue Earth, the city council learned last Monday.

But the five-block project needs to be expanded, City Administrator Kathy Bailey reported.

“Because of the clinic building project at UHD, we are proposing to add several more blocks to the overall project,” Bailey explained.

It would involve going two more blocks south on Moore, and a block west of Moore on 10th Street. Bailey says the work is needed for improving both sewer and water lines, but especially for storm water drainage in the area.

“We need to act quickly on this, as construction is slated to start soon on the clinic project,” Bailey said.

Council members questioned whether the extra blocks could be added to the current project, and Bailey said it would need to be a separately bid improvement.

“Of course our hope would be that the current contractor would also bid on this new work, since they are already here,” she said. “It would be difficult to have different firms trying to work at the same time.”

City Engineer Bill Sayre, of Bolton and Menk, said the earliest the project could be bid would be in September.

“We could have the initial engineers’ report in two weeks time,” he said, “But the plans and specs will take much longer to prepare.”

Sayre presented a proposal for engineering services for the project that included costs not to exceed $8,000 for the initial plan.

For more of this story, see this week’s Register.