Upgrades are coming to a section of the sewer system in Swift Current.

The North Hill Drive Sanitary Main line, which is currently running over capacity, will be set to receive upgrades this fall.

In City Council this past Tuesday, the contract was awarded to Ed's Contracting and Consulting out of Raymore for a project which has had to be a lengthy, but worthwhile process.

"We started in 2015 and it was a bit of a difficult one," said Mitch Minken, GM of Infrastructure and Operations with the City of Swift Current. "We had a couple contractors come look at the project and one contractor give us a price on the engineering designing that was proposed. They were assessing the project and came up with an alternate solution for us, which was a great thing because it provided us an easier method of construction that could be managed at a cheaper price."

It was a win-win scenario, according to Minken. The City's 2017 Municipal Budget allowed for $290,800. The Raymore's initial bid came in at $270,250 - a number which decreased to $158,016.45 after the alternate solution was discovered.

The savings of $112,233.55 was a bonus for the city, and something Minken says is a testiment to the good business relationships the City aims to foster.

"To have the contractor come forward and actually propose a cheaper solution is a testiment to good relationships that we have working with our contractors," he said. "We've worked with this contractor before - probably about a five year relationship. It's great to be able to work with our contractors in this way."

During the construction process for the line which runs on North Hill Drive west of 13th AVE NE and into Riverdene Park, local disruption of traffic will occur while roadways are torn up to access the lines.

The project is slated for a September date, of which has not been announced yet, and will take approximately three weeks to complete.