New London ― The City Council on Monday is slated to discuss and possibly award a nearly $5 million contract to a Stratford-based company to conduct the first phase of a long-awaited residential drinking water line replacement project.

Councilors are being asked to approve a $4.94 million contract with the Burns Construction Company for the removal and replacement of approximately 600 lead-lined water pipes in the northern and downtown areas of the city.

The council will meet at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

The lines will be simultaneously replaced with copper-lined versions, part of an overall $32 million, multi-phase plan to eventually replace 3,300 such pipes across the city.

The Burns company, which submitted the lowest project bid, was selected as the preferred bidder by the city’s Water & Water Pollution Control Authority and project consultant Arcadis.

In addition to the Burns application, the city received three other project bids: $5.3 million from the Wiese Construction Company; $5.8 million from Gerber Construction; and $10 million from the C.J. Fucci firm, according to an Arcadis memorandum.

A construction cost opinion by Arcadis pegged the probable cost of the work at $6.6 million.

In the run-up to Arcadis’ recommendation, Burns’ officials provided information on their company’s bonding capacity, safety record and anticipated work schedule. The company cited previously completed water-line replacement projects, including ones in Berlin and Southington.

“They have recent experience replacing water service lines on private property using trenchless technologies,” the Arcadis memo states.

City public utilities’ officials previously said the least expensive and disruptive way to replace the existing lines is via a “pulling pit” method in which the lead pipes are yanked out as new copper versions are slid through at the same time.

In New London, the service lines that run from water mains consist of sections owned by a customer and the city. The mains, not made of lead, ferry drinking water to service lines — many of which do contain lead — and into a dwelling where they feed sinks, shower heads and toilets.

The council on Sept. 18 approved bonding $35.6 million for the three-phase line overhaul to be paid with a combination of state subsidies, low-interest loans and a municipal surcharge fund.

The inaugural portion of construction work, dubbed “Phase 1A,” will likely begin in the spring, to be followed by “Phase 2A,” which will address another 600 or so lines, Public Utilities Director Joseph Lanzafame said.

“We’ll conduct our preliminary investigations this year, including checking basements and any in-road issues,” he said.

He said the last two phases would concentrate on 2,100 residences in the city’s western and southern sections with the first wave of bid notices to be sent out after July 1, 2024 and again a year later.

j.penney@theday.com