Town only received one request for qualification

LAKE LANIER—The Town of Tryon is seeking more bids for requests for qualifications to find an engineer to inspect the Lake Lanier Dam. 

Tryon Town Council met Tuesday and heard from town manager Zach Ollis about the RFQs. Ollis said the town only received one bid and he asked for an extension in order to get one or two more bids. 

The one bid came from Cranston Engineering Group, PA, out of Augusta, Ga. The firm has inspected many dams in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, including a reserve dam at Lake Keowee in Pickens, S.C. 

The town decided last month to seek an engineer qualified to inspect the dam at Lake Lanier, which the town owns. 

Tryon is seeking a professional engineering firm who is qualified in the state of South Carolina to perform services related to inspections at the dam. 

“The State of South Carolina and the Department of Environmental and Health Control has required that the town of Tryon submit a detail inspection no later than Dec. 1, 2019,” states the town’s RFQ. 

The town is seeking an engineer who is capable of understanding and providing services to complete on call services and tasks order including to investigate and analyze the dam; perform a detailed inspection that meets the requirements of DHEC; to perform hydrologic analysis and hydraulic analysis to DHEC standards; to perform subsurface geotechnical investigation; to define a scope and opinion of probable cost for required engineering plans and specification for repairs based on the investigation and analysis; to prepare plans and specifications for repairs and to construct administration of installation and repairs of the plans and specification. 

The town is looking for an engineering firm who has experience with high hazard dams, with laws and requirements by the state of South Carolina; experience in hydrologic and hydraulic analysis with DHEC standards; experience in subsurface geotechnical investigation; experience with management of construction administration utilizing plans and specifications and experience working with government agencies. 

The Town of Tryon owns the dam and lakebed of Lake Lanier and currently uses the lake as its main reservoir for town water. The Lake Lanier dam was constructed in 1924. 

The town is also currently investigating abandoning the lake as its main water source, and instead, using its mountain source of water solely.