Denton's Public Utilities Board is set to consider a $317 million amendment on Monday, Nov. 9, for the next stage of work at the Pecan Creek Water Reclamation Plant, the only wastewater treatment plant the city has.
The item, posted Tuesday for the board's 9 a.m. meeting at City Hall, is the second of three guaranteed maximum price packages under the city's construction manager at risk contract with Sundt Construction. If the board recommends it and the City Council later approves it, the total contract would reach $409,345,783.
What the money buys
According to the staff agenda sheet, the second package covers 11 scopes of work, including concrete and precast concrete, structural steel, metal buildings, electrical work, site utilities, bridge cranes and the early purchase of process equipment. Of the $317,024,218 requested, $303,895,260 is the guaranteed price and $13,128,958 is a contingency that only the city's project manager can release in writing.
Staff list three funding sources: $101.7 million in capital bonds, $155.4 million in federal WIFIA loan money and $60 million from the Texas Water Development Board. Spending is projected to peak at about $119.5 million in the 2027-28 budget year.
A third and final package, still out for bids, is expected to reach the council in 2027.
Why the city is building new
The plant opened in 1963 and has been expanded several times to its current 21 million gallons a day. Average flows now run about 15 million gallons, or 71% of its permitted limit, the city says. State rules require utilities to start designing more capacity at 75% and to begin building at 90%.
A 2025 condition assessment concluded that replacing the plant would cost less than rehabilitating and expanding the 60-year-old structures. A city presentation estimates the rebuild-and-expand route at $636.7 million with completion in July 2034, compared with $503.8 million for a new 30-million-gallon plant finished in December 2031, a difference of about $133 million. State regulators approved a 30-million-gallon discharge permit in 2025.
The new facility will use membrane bioreactor treatment, which the city says produces cleaner effluent and less sludge, along with new headworks, ultraviolet disinfection and solids handling.
