The City of Humboldt is ready to move forward with their water treatment plant upgrade.

Monday night at council's meeting, they awarded the tender to VCM Construction based out of Saskatoon.

They chose the company through their process that included 12 compliant bids.

"The project is to expand the water plant so we can reach up to a population of 9,000 people," Peter Bergquist, Director of Planning and Engineering explained outside chambers. "With the whole project there is going to be significant upgrades of the actual water equipment in side the plant."

The total project is about $4.35 million. However, they are getting financial help with the project through the Building Canada Fund that covers 2/3 of the cost which is covered by both the provincial and federal governments.

That, along with favourable bids was positive according to Bergquist.

"The lowest tender meeting spec was actually VCM, we did receive a lot of tenders, we were pretty excited about that. This project, we're really looking forward too."

The plant will remain at 12th Avenue and Main Street but it will expand to the west on the land the city purchased where the St. Elizabeth Hospital once stood.

Bergquist says the upgrade should reduce if not eliminate drinking water advisories. He mentioned they had about three in between 2014 and 2015.

"Some of those were due to power outages or just supply cutoffs from our provider, SaskWater. This allows us to have more water in storage to provide the businesses and provide the residents with water and hopefully minimize any sort of disruptions."

The original plant now in use was built in the late 1970's, a second reservoir was constructed "some time" after that.

The work is expected to begin as soon as possible with an estimated 44 week work period.

You can hear more from Bergquist below in his interview with Bolt FM's Clark Stork.