Almost half million dollars in state funding was received by the Town of Kremmling last week so it may begin to repair its crumbling water system.

The Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) sent the town a check for $478,500 for the replacement of its main water transmission line. This is a 50-percent matching grant, with the town paying the other half.

“Now that we’ve gotten the DOLA grant, we’ve begun advertising for construction companies to do the work,” said Ted Soltis, Kremmling’s Town Manager.

That advertisement for bids appeared in Thursday’s Sky-Hi Daily News. The mandatory pre-bid meeting is set for Friday, May 2, at Kremmling Town Hall. The bid date and time is Friday, May 9, at 11 a.m., also at town hall.

The project, which is scheduled to be done this year, will replace the main water transmission line from the town’s water plant located more than two miles west of Kremmling to the town’s western edge. As part of the project, the water line must be placed across both DeBerard Ditch and Muddy Creek. The project also includes a 125-foot bore under U.S. Highway 40.

Kremmling’s main transmission water line, which supplies all of the town’s water, is badly leaking and sections of it have failed in recent years due to the heavy corrosion to its steel pipes. The line was installed in the early 1970s.

The town of Kremmling had set the replacement of the main water transmission line as a top priority project as part of its 2008 budget. The total pricetag for the project is estimated to be about $957,000.

The successful grant application that led to last week’s receipt of the $478,500 DOLA check was prepared by Kremmling Town Manager Ted Soltis. Mayor Tom Clark and Doug Moses, Kremmling’s Public Works Director, made the presentation requesting the matching grant before the DOLA committee in Denver on Wednesday, March 19. The committee gave its unanimous approval.

This year’s project to replace the main transmission line is just the first stage of the needed repairs to the town’s water system. Town officials estimate that 24,000 feet of steel water pipe, which is 30 percent of the Kremmling’s in-town water system, has corroded to the point that it must be replaced in the next few years. These steel pipes were installed in the late 1940s and early ’50s.

“About the time we finish up on this year’s transmission line project, we’ll start applying for the next grant,” Soltis said.

Town officials estimate next year’s grant request will be for $2 million to start the first stage in the in-town water line replacement project.

The need to replace large portions of the town’s water lines is not only due to a real possibility of the collapse of the system, but also because of its continuing financial loss to the town. Moses estimates that nearly 70 percent of the water treated by Kremmling’s water plant is lost from leaky pipes along the main transmission line or the in-town steel pipe system.

The town of Kremmling plans to replace of all its leaking water lines over the next five years.