Construction is expected to begin later this month on amillion-gallon project that upon completion will be LincolnCounty’s largest water well and elevated storage tank.

Project coordinators and Linbrook Alliance officials metThursday afternoon to discuss a preliminary construction schedulefor the project, based on the proposed contract time of 420 days tocompletion. Work is expected to begin around Nov. 26.

City Clerk Mike Jinks, who also serves as the chairman of theAlliance, said work will be evident as soon as contractors aresituated on site. The tank will supply the projected LinbrookBusiness Park, which will be located just off Brookway Boulevard onSaints Trail.

“When they come in to start work they’ll come in and clean thatsite off and start grading out their roads and getting the wellcontractor in there to drill,” Jinks said. “There will be obviouswork from the time they get there.”

Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce Executive VicePresident Cliff Brumfield said the first phase of construction willfocus on the well. He said the digging of the well and the wellhead installation should be complete around March.

“Our engineers are working on the roadways and the new water andsewers for the park as well as connecting the new tank and well tomunicipal systems,” said Brumfield. “Naturally the weather couldaffect it, but the time frame has built-in allowances forthat.”

The digging for the well will start first so as to be leastaffected by seasonal issues, officials said.

“The well drilling is going on now because of the weather. It’sgoing to affect them more than in the things like pouring theconcrete,” said Jinks. “The pedestal will be going in around April,but concrete work is pushed more to when the weather won’t be afactor.”

Chancery Clerk Tillmon Bishop said taking the first set of stepsis exciting not only for him, but for the entire city and countygovernments.

“We’ve been working on this for a very long time and it’s takena strong joint effort with local government, as well as somefederal funding, to get to where we are now,” Bishop said. “To getto the point of putting utilities on the property is a majorstepping stone.”

The alliance will meet Nov. 7 to discuss details such as anaccess road to the site. Jinks said land will need to be purchasedto create a larger road than the current two-lane one that runs tothe site. Officials will discuss where to put the road and how togo about it at next Wednesday’s meeting.

“The engineer has a plan for how wide that road needs to be andhow it needs to hit Brookway Boulevard, but we’ve got to get theproperty to make that happen,” he said.

And officials are more than happy with the companies who wereawarded the contracts, saying not only were they the lowestbidders, but they also offered the best bids. PickeringEngineering, Southwest Electric, and Landmark were awarded the bidsfor the project. The Donald Smith Company has also beensubcontracted to drill the well.

“The alliance has done their homework, and these were all notonly the lowest bids, but also the more qualified companies,” saidBishop. “These companies will have the history behind them to beable to do really good work.”

Brumfield agreed.

“We’re excited about the fact that there’s going to be hardcoreconstruction work going on in the park,” he said.

And more long term, Bishop said, alliance members are ready forthe positive impact the business park will have on thecommunity.

“It has taken us time to get to this point and it’s going totake time to get to the next step. But the end result, and our hopeand prayer, is that there are a lot of families that will beaffected by jobs offered by the new business park,” Bishop said.”It will affect quality of life for a lot of people in our countyand our community.”