B 3.0
Water and sewer pipelines
Gravity sewer, water mains and force mains in open cut and by trenchless methods, including the surface restoration that is what a resident actually sees when it is finished.
W/SS, Water and sewer Typical span 4 weeks–8 months
Pipeline unit prices look simple and are not. The same eight-inch pipe in the same town can differ by a factor of three per foot, and almost none of that difference is the pipe.
What actually drives it: depth, because a trench past about twelve feet needs a different support system and different equipment; groundwater, because dewatering changes the method and the day rate; what is already down there, because a line threading between existing utilities advances at a fraction of open-field speed; and what is on top, because replacing arterial pavement with traffic control costs more than replacing a field.
For a district sizing a project, that means a single number per foot is nearly useless. The table below is broken out the way an engineer's estimate breaks it out, so a realistic figure can be assembled rather than guessed.
The other thing worth saying plainly: on a residential street, restoration is the project as far as the public is concerned. Nobody sees the pipe. Everybody sees the patch, the driveway, the lawn and how long the road was closed.
Define these before a proposal
- Diameter, material and class
- PVC, ductile iron, HDPE, RCP, and the pressure or stiffness class the design calls for.
- Depth and groundwater
- The two variables that move the per-foot price most, and the two most often unknown at planning stage.
- Surface and traffic
- Arterial, collector, residential or open ground, and what traffic control the jurisdiction will require.
- Existing utilities
- What is already in the corridor. Locates, potholing and the clearances the design assumes.
- Testing and acceptance
- Pressure and leakage, disinfection and bacteriological on water; air, mandrel and CCTV on gravity sewer.
What you receive
Pressure and leakage tests, CCTV inspection, record drawings
In the format the owner's records require, agreed at proposal stage rather than discovered at closeout. What happens at each stage is set out on the process page.
B 3.1 Pay items
What this scope costs, by the unit
Broken out the way an engineer's estimate breaks it out, so a district can assemble a realistic figure rather than guess at a lump sum. The full sheet is on the unit price page.
| Item | Description | Unit | Unit price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02.10 | 8″ PVC water main, 6′ cover Pipe, bedding, backfill, compaction, testing, disinfection | LF | $185–$310 |
| 02.20 | 12″ PVC water main, 6′ cover As above | LF | $245–$420 |
| 02.30 | 16″ ductile iron water main Restrained joint, thrust restraint, testing | LF | $395–$690 |
| 02.40 | Fire hydrant assembly Hydrant, valve, tee, thrust block, restoration | EA | $8,400–$14,500 |
| 02.50 | Water service, ¾–1″, short side Corporation, tubing, curb stop, box | EA | $2,100–$3,900 |
| 03.10 | 8″ PVC gravity sewer, 8–12′ depth Pipe, bedding, backfill, compaction, air and mandrel testing | LF | $210–$395 |
| 03.20 | 8″ PVC gravity sewer, 12–18′ depth Trench support and dewatering as required | LF | $340–$640 |
| 03.30 | 15–24″ gravity sewer Depth dependent; price the depth band, not the diameter alone | LF | $390–$880 |
| 03.40 | 48″ sanitary manhole, 8–12′ Base, barrel, cone, frame and cover, vacuum tested | EA | $7,800–$13,500 |
| 03.50 | Sewer service reconnection Including reinstatement to the property line | EA | $2,400–$5,200 |
| 04.10 | Force main, 6–12″ HDPE Fused, tested, with air release assemblies | LF | $220–$460 |
| 04.20 | Trenchless crossing, bore and jack Under road, rail or stream, casing included | LF | $620–$1,850 |
| 04.30 | Cured-in-place pipe lining, 8–15″ Cleaning, CCTV, liner, reinstatement of services | LF | $140–$310 |
| 11.10 | Asphalt pavement restoration Full-depth patch, tack, compaction, striping | SY | $62–$135 |
| 11.20 | Concrete flatwork restoration Sidewalk, curb, gutter, driveway | SY | $95–$195 |
| 11.30 | Landscape restoration Topsoil, seed or sod, irrigation repair | SY | $16–$48 |
Row bands are the APWA uniform colour code for what is in the pipe: W, Potable water potable water, SS, Sanitary sewer sanitary sewer, unbanded where a line covers both or neither. Units are LF linear foot, EA each, CY cubic yard, SY square yard, SF square foot, LS lump sum, MO month, DAY day.
Unit prices are USD planning ranges for the Colorado front range, exclude engineering, surveying, permitting, bonds, insurance, owner-furnished materials, easement and right-of-way costs and any applicable tax, and assume normal access and no undisclosed site conditions. They are published so a district can size a project before it spends money on design. They are planning ranges, not a bid. Reviewed October 2026. A price for your project comes from a bid or a proposal against a defined scope. See the disclaimer.
B 3.2 Questions
Questions about this scope
Specific to this scope. The general ones — bidding, bonding, insurance, weather days, pay applications, retainage — are on the FAQ page.
Why does depth change the price so much?
Because past roughly twelve feet a trench needs an engineered support system rather than a standard trench box, the excavator has to be bigger, the spoil has to be handled twice, and production per day drops sharply. Federal excavation rules govern all of it and there is no version of this work where those get bent for schedule. A deep line in wet ground can easily cost three times a shallow line in dry ground, same pipe.
When is trenchless cheaper than open cut?
Almost never on a per-foot basis, and frequently on a total-cost basis. Boring under an arterial road costs far more per foot than digging it up, but it avoids traffic control, pavement replacement, business disruption and a road closure the public will remember. The honest comparison includes the restoration and the disruption, not just the pipe.
How long will a street be closed?
For open-cut work on a residential street, a realistic figure is a few days of active work per block plus the restoration behind it, with access maintained to driveways outside working hours. On an arterial with staged traffic control it is longer and it is worked at night more often. This is the question residents actually ask, and it belongs in the public notice before the work rather than in a complaint after it.
What happens to my lawn and driveway?
They are restored, and restoration is a real line in the estimate rather than an afterthought. Concrete flatwork is replaced to the nearest joint rather than patched, and landscape restoration includes irrigation repair where we cut a line. On a public project the standard is set by the jurisdiction's own specification, which is usually stricter than what a homeowner expects.
B 0.0 The other scopes
The rest of the schedule of work
New water and wastewater treatment structures and process systems, from excavation and cast-in-place concrete through mechanical installation, commissioning and operator training.
- You receive
- Commissioning and startup records, O&M manuals, operator training
Rebuilding a process train while the plant keeps meeting its permit. Bypass pumping, staged demolition, tie-ins scheduled at low flow, and a written procedure for every hour the plant is vulnerable.
- You receive
- Bypass plan, shutdown and tie-in procedures, as-built record
Wet wells, valve vaults, pumps, piping, electrical and controls, and the standby power that decides what happens to a collection system when the grid goes down.
- You receive
- Commissioning record, control narrative verification, O&M manuals
Cast-in-place water-retaining concrete, vaults, tanks, headworks, grading, drainage and restoration — the civil scope that everything mechanical is bolted to.
- You receive
- Concrete test records, hydrostatic testing, record drawings
Send the drawings, or describe the problem
Telephone with what the facility has to do, what it does now, and the date it has to be finished. We will tell you what has to be defined before anyone can price it, what carries the flow while the work happens, and what the sequence would have to look like.
RN Civil Construction, LLC · 6025 S Quebec St, Englewood, CO 80111