WEIRTON — The Weirton Area Water Board continues to work on projects with an eye toward improvements to the treatment and distribution systems in the city.

During Thursday’s board meeting, Jesse Alden of the Thrasher Group presented an update to the ongoing expansion project at the water treatment plant, which carried a base contract amount of $40,401,643.50 and is under the guidance of Triton Construction.

“Based on the contact amount, we are 64.5 percent complete,” Alden said.

The water plant project had been eyed for a substantial completion of Feb. 27, with a final payment in late March; however, Alden explained recent additions to the project and delays in receiving components have resulted in the deadlines being pushed back to having a substantial completion date of June 20.

Alden also presented a change order of $110,531.97, as a result of additional work and the need to extend the timeline, which will come from the project’s contingency fund. The project began with $1.5 million in contingency, and, with the new change order, is expected to be down to $508,134.08.

“These are unforeseen things,” noted Utilities Director A.D. “Butch” Mastrantoni, pointing to unexpected costs and delays in shipping for components, as well as aspects of last winter’s cold weather and the related outages in the water distribution system.

Mastrantoni noted adjustments to the work schedule had to be made, pushing some work until later, when components weren’t available, to make sure the treatment plant wasn’t shut down.

“A lot of the things we set off and rescheduled so we could keep the town with water,” he said.

Ben Erste, of the Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission, noted the scope of the project, praising planners and contractors for being able to project it for completion in under two years.

“There aren’t a lot of projects in the state on water and sewer that are $45 million,” he said.

Alden announced the preliminary engineering report for proposed upgrades to the city’s water distribution system has been completed, after the Wwater board amended its contract with Thrasher during the summer to work on that project.

The project was among recommendations from the West Virginia Public Service Commission following its investigation into last winter’s water outages, with the goal of upgrading water lines throughout the city with newer materials.

“We’ve updated the report with new numbers,” Alden said, noting such a project had been a part of long-term planning prior to the PSC investigation.

Alden also reported Thrasher has been working on preliminary report for the water board’s plan to meet new federal regulations for the treatment of PFAS — also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — man-made chemicals which are heat-resistant and repel oil, stains and water.