The anticipated opening of bids for construction of the Plymouth Pipeline, from nine pre-qualified construction firms, took place in the Amador Water Agency meeting room Thursday afternoon.

In today's economic climate, conjecture among water agency staff, directors and Plymouth city officials led to numerous sets of crossed fingers, hopeful that the bidding process would bring good news to those paying for the project.

Better news than anyone expected is what they got, as the low bid was declared to be $5.29 million, about $4 million less than the worst case estimate.

Relieved Plymouth Mayor Jon Colburn announced the reduced burden this could mean for his city's water ratepayers at the Plymouth City Council meeting later that night. Final calculations are yet to be made, but anticipated rate hikes totaling 48 percent could be lowered substantially, if not eliminated altogether.

The city of Plymouth's obligation for pipeline construction could have been $4.7 million and that was the figure that had to be used to calculate rates for the future, without including any of the anticipated development projects.

By plugging in the new, lower construction figure, the city's obligation drops to $1.8 million.

"We have our lowest apparent bidder," said AWA supervising engineer Erik Christeson. "We'll take that before our board for approval and a notice to proceed."

If all goes according to plan, work could begin as early as December, but probably not later than February, with one year allotted for completion.

The lowest bid came from Mountain Cascade, a pipeline specialist based in Livermore. In business since 1975, Mountain Cascade has installed pipelines all over northern California and is currently working on a dozen projects, including installations in Manteca, Vacaville and Rancho Cordova.

The Mountain Cascade representative and courier whispered during the hushed ceremonial opening of the bids that he had barely arrived in time. The 2 p.m. deadline had been declared as firm and binding. Somewhat lost on the unfamiliar roads of Amador County, he had stopped to call for directions, only to discover that his Nextel phone had no connection.

Christeson cautioned that there still could be glitches in the process. "They (Mountain Cascade) could withdraw their bid," he said, "or there could be a protest from another bidder."

The higher bidders are empowered to request and receive copies of the Mountain Cascade bid for review. Should one of them find sufficient deficiencies in the low bid, that bidder could file a protest. Christeson added that this is not likely. Official approval by Plymouth is also needed for the project to move forward.

Given all approvals by the AWA Board of Directors and the city of Plymouth, barring protests from another bidder or the Plymouth ratepayers, who still have a vote coming on their rates, or withdrawal by Mountain Cascade, "It's plausible," said Christeson, "that they could be clearing and grubbing this winter."