OXFORD — The town has settled on $8.6 million for the design and construction of its waste-water treatment facility. 

Town Manager Michael Chammings told selectmen last week that he had approved the specifications and costs of the facility after extensive meetings with engineers to reduce costs.

Construction is expected to start after a $2.87 million foundation is completed in March, according to a project time line. 

The state-of-the-art facility will be built near Welchville Dam, close to the intersection of Route 26 and Route 121. 

For the past several months, town officials have been meeting with engineers from Woodard and Curran, the firm hired by the town to oversee design and construction phases of the project, to find cost savings in the project after the lowest bid — $8.9 million — came in over budget. 

Altogether, engineers were able to cut some $386,000 from that bid, the threshold before “we started cutting into the meat,” Chammings said. 

Among changes, the cost reductions include putting down gravel rather than paving driveways to pump stations, axing plans to build an electrical building and finding less expensive floor and wall coatings, according to a Feb. 20 email from Woodard and Curran Senior Vice President Brent Bridges. 

“The project team considered a variety of proposals and ideas to ultimately arrive at several items that will reduce construction costs while at the same time maintaining the project’s design intent, overall objectives and treatment performance,” Bridges wrote. 

The facility will be the hub of the town’s $23.7 million sewer project when it is completed later this year. The sewer system is deemed a catalyst to economic development as it will add incentive for businesses, already following into the area in the wake of the Oxford Casino, by lowering their utility costs. 

Last April, Oxford received $23.7 million in federal cash from the Department of Agriculture to complete the project. The town intends to pay back construction loans it has secured for the project with the funding, $10.4 million of which is in the form of a grant.  

Wastewater will be pumped to the facility through miles of sewer pipes along Route 26. There, membrane filters will slough off solid wastes. From there, it will be sterilized by an ultraviolet light before being discharged into the Little Androscoggin River.

The town has already laid nearly $3.2 million worth of pipes and three pump stations, and purchased a $1.2 million environmentally friendly membrane system in December 2013 that will be installed inside the building. 

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