OGDEN — What many view as an Ogden City landmark is due for an upgrade, and that means another construction project is coming to Ogden Canyon.

Sometime next spring, Pineview Water Systems will begin the bidding process for a project that will replace the 1,100 foot siphon that hangs above the mouth of Ogden Canyon.

The 80-year-old siphon is 31-inches thick and provides 75 percent of the water used by residents of the South Ogden Water District, which includes South Ogden, Washington Terrace, parts of Ogden and a small section of Riverdale. Parts of the siphon are buried, but 360 feet of it is suspended above State Route 39 as it enters the canyon.

Terel Grimley, general manager of PWS, said the siphon is inspected every year by the Federal Bureau of Reclamation and three years ago, the bureau told Pineview that the outer coating on the siphon had to be replaced.

Grimley said analysis of the siphon by an independent engineer, Montgomery Watson and Harza Engineering, revealed the cost difference between fixing the coating and replacing the whole siphon itself was negligible. 

“So we went to the (Pineview) board and said, ‘If we’re going to go to this expense, we should really consider including this other work,'” Grimley said.

That additional work includes replacing all 1,100 feet of pipe associated with the siphon, building a new bridge structure beneath it, replacing suspension wires and giving the system a seismic retrofit to handle a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. 

After Pineview determined the wise course of action would be to replace the whole siphon, the water company worked with Kiewit Corporation on the design of the project. 

Grimley said once the design was completed, Pineview began negotiations with Kiewit to build the project. The project was initially slated to begin this year and be completed by June, but Grimley said negotiations with Kiewit stalled. As a result, the project will now likely go out to bid sometime in the spring of 2015.

Initial analysis suggests the entire project, including the design portion, will cost about $9.5 million. Pineview will issue bonds to finance the project. Grimley said small rate increases that have been levied on residents in the South Ogden Water District over the last several years will be used to help pay off the bonds.

“The district has been initiating small rate increases for the past several years,” Grimley said. “That money will be diverted to pay for this project. There won’t be any major rate increases.”

With word of another construction project in the canyon, residents there are probably taking a collective sigh. Ogden city completed its $8 million waterline replacement project through the canyon in 2013. That project included nightly closures, water shutdowns and plenty of congestion on the narrow canyon road.

Canyon resident Rebecca Laperriere said residents there have heard rumblings of the new project, but don’t know too much about it yet.

“We’ve heard some things just through word of mouth,” she said. “But we really don’t know what to expect at this point.”

Laperriere said word of the project has also made the rounds on several social media sites, furthering confusion about it.

Grimsley said impacts associated with the siphon project won’t come anywhere near those that came with the city’s pipeline replacement.

“I know there is some concern from residents and businesses in the canyon about the disruption of traffic,” he said. “But this (project) will have very small impacts because all of the work is taking place at the mouth of the canyon.”

Grimley said the canyon will likely be closed for two days when the project gets underway, but other traffic delays during the project won’t exceed 15 minutes. As actual construction work nears, Grimley said Pineview will meet with canyon residents and businesses to supply them with information.

“We’re going to keep them posted and try to make this as easy as possible on them,” he said. “There hasn’t been any major work on that siphon for 80 years. Now is the time to do it.”

Contact reporter Mitch Shaw at 801-625-4233 or mishaw@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @mitchshaw23.