FREEPORT — Closure of the final portion of the town landfill is scheduled to begin by this summer.
The town on Tuesday reviewed bids for a contractor to close the landfill off Pownal Road. A request for bids was issued in February, when the Town Council approved the shutdown.
Town Engineer Albert Presgraves said the town received six bids, and the low bidder was Gorham-based R.J. Grondin & Sons with a bid of $76,650.
“It’s an excellent price,” Presgraves said.
The estimated cost of the project had been $180,000, Presgraves said. He said he thinks the construction company’s bid is so low is because they have their own source of clay and don’t need to buy any.
The Town Council must award the contract, which is expected to take place at the May 3 meeting.
The construction and demolition debris landfill, at the town’s transfer and recycling center on Hedgehog Mountain Road, was created in 1978. The municipal and solid waste portion of the landfill closed in 1990. Throughout the 1990s the debris landfill underwent phased closing.
According to Presgraves, the total size of the landfill is eight acres, but most of it is already covered. The remaining portion to be closed is about three-quarters of an acre.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection in March approved the Town Council’s request for final closure. The DEP also approved the town’s post-closure maintenance plan, which says the town will inspect the landfill semi-annually for the first two years after the closure and annually after that.
A DEP engineer will be assigned to assist with the project.
According to the town’s request for bids, the landfill must be closed with a “layered soil cover system,” with an 18-inch layer of clay soil and a six-inch layer of topsoil on which grass can grow. The existing cover on the already closed parts of the landfill must also be regraded.
Also, trees and brush on the covered parts must be cut down and compacted.
Presgraves said R.J. Grondin and Sons will have from May 12 to Oct. 6 to complete the project, but that it will only take three to four weeks.
Kate Gardner can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 125 or kgardner@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter: @katevgardner.
Freeport’s landfill off Pownal Road is scheduled to be covered and closed by October.
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