PELL CITY — Rast Construction Inc. was the low bidder for a multimillion dollar sewer project, which should help eliminate some sewer overflows, while providing for future growth along the I-20 corridor.

Rast Construction was the low bidder for the Northern Interceptor project. The company will complete the Northern Interceptor at a cost of $2.7 million.

Rast Construction was one of 12 companies that submitted bids for the project. The bid results were presented to the mayor and council at their Thursday work session. The bids ranged from $2.7 million to $4.6 million.

Bryon Woods, an engineer with Municipal Consultants and a contract engineer for Pell City, said the bid submitted by Rast Construction was under what officials estimated for the construction project.

“We had plenty of competition,” Woods said of the bid process. “It was very competitive.”

The northern interceptor is basically a large, 24-inch sewer line that will the run along Fishing Creek. The sewer line extends from U.S. 78 near Benjamin Moore Inc. to St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital on Dr. John Haynes Drive.

The City Council is expected to accept Rast Construction’s bid at its Monday night meeting.

Woods said a preconstruction meeting will tentatively be scheduled for the end of September and the company could begin putting the pipe in the ground by the end of October.

The company has about one year, or 290 days, to complete the project, once work begins.

Woods said the line will not only help eliminate sewer overflows, but provide adequate sewer for the new hospital, which is expected to be built near Jefferson State Community College, just north of Interstate 20.

“It’s a big capacity line,” Woods said.

This is the fourth of six major sewer projects the city must complete by 2012 under a 2006 consent agreement reached with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management or face stiff fines.

The consent order was negotiated between city officials and state environmental officials after Pell City was cited for major sewer overflows.

The work includes expansion of the Dye Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant on Golf Course Road and rehabilitation work of sewer lines throughout the city, among other work.

The city secured a $10 million bond in 2007 for all the expansion work at the city’s sewer plant. The city has secured another $18.5 million through the SRF (State Revolving Fund program), along with stimulus money, to help completely overhaul the aging sewer system and meet the requirements set forth in the 2006 consent agreement.