Contract clears way for data center work to begin

The first tangible evidence of the data center campus on Port Washington’s north side will be seen next month when Vinton Construction Co. of Two Rivers begins to extend sewer and water lines to the development.

A $4.55 million contract with Vinton Construction for the work was approved Tuesday by the Common Council, a move needed to ensure the city meets its commitment to have utilities to the data center property by Jan. 1, City Engineer Roger Strohm told aldermen.

The contract provides incentives for the company to get the work done on time, Strohm said, and heavy penalties if it doesn’t.

The move came just after the council approved the annexation of another 59.3 acres for the data center and temporarily zoned it for a data center and held a first review of petitions by Vantage Data Centers to annex and rezone another 333.8 acres for the campus.

Those petitions are expected to be reviewed and acted on by aldermen in October. 

Mayor Ted Neitzke said Monday he expects a groundbreaking for the Vantage project will be held in October.

Aaron Groh, municipal manager with Kapur and Associates, the engineering firm on the project, told aldermen that 20 contractors pulled specifications for the utility project but only two submitted bids, Vinton and James Peterson and Sons.

That’s due in large part to the fact that the project has an accelerated timeline, Groh said, noting Vinton plans to have two crews working on the project.

Vinton had the low bid of $4.55 million while James Peterson and Sons bid $4.58 million, Groh said.

The city, he said, must approve the project and sign the contract because the work involves extending public utilities.

While the city is signing the contract, it won’t be paying for the work, Neitzke said. Vantage will pay the city for it as specified in the city’s development agreement with the firm, with the cost ultimately repaid through a tax incremental financing district.  

The engineer’s estimate for the utility extension was $6 million, a figure Groh said included not just the construction cost but also a 30% contingency fund, engineering fees, construction management and other expenses. 

Strohm noted that the city purchased many of the materials for the project to trim the needed lead time to obtain them.

The project will extend the utilities north along Highway LL and under I-43 via Highland Lane and Highland Road.

The pipes will be placed in a “sleeve” under the freeway, Strohm said, so if repairs are needed in the future they will be easier to make.

As part of the project, he added, a distribution meter will be installed to measure the water used during construction and provide data to the water utility about the efficiency of water delivery north of the freeway.

The work, which could begin as soon as Oct. 13, will not require closing the Ozaukee Interurban Trail in the area, Groh noted.

The Common Council also approved a memorandum of understanding with Ozaukee County Tuesday that calls for the county to repave Highway LL once the utilities are installed.

To do that, Strohm said, the county will keep its asphalt plant open longer than usual to ensure a temporary surface on the road throughout the winter.

The asphalt plant usually closed about Thanksgiving, Groh said, adding he expects the paving to be done by mid-December.

Vantage Data Centers, which has purchased roughly 1,900 acres on the city’s north side, is building the Port campus on the southern 672 acres, an area north of Highland Drive and south of Lake Drive between I-43 and the Ozaukee Interurban Trail. 

The company is investing at least $8 billion in the project, which is projected to use 1.3 gigawatts of power and use an average of 35,000 gallons of water a day, equivalent to the amount used in 65 households daily.

The water will be purchased from the city’s water utility, which has committed to providing as much as 1.2 million gallons of water a day for the project, which Neitzke said would occur “only on the hottest days of the year.”