Just a few months into construction of the new Villa Rica West Wastewater Plant, city officials report that construction is ahead of schedule.

Construction began on the $30.8 million plant in early March with a contracted completion date with RTD Construction for 30 months. RTD, though, has its own 22-month schedule it is trying to keep and is on target to meet the earlier date.

“They’re on schedule to finish when they expect to at this point, but keep in mind we’re still early in the game,” Deputy City Manager of Utilities Eric Lacefield said. “Based on work completed through payments, we’re only about 8 percent or so along. They’ve still got 30 months, but they feel like they can do it in 22.”

When the city first put the project out for bid, the construction schedule called for two years. But believing that schedule was too aggressive, it changed it to 30 months to bring the bids down.

The cost of the project will stay the same even if RTD completes the project faster than projected. The contractor has already started saving the city money with an initial change order that dropped the original bid’s price tag by $1 million through alterations in the engineering, and a similar engineering change that is being processed now is likely to save more money.

“That $30.8 million is still the contract price, but that number will hopefully move downward as we get farther along into construction,” Lacefield said. “We’ve added some stuff too along the way, but at this point we feel like the credits are going to outweigh the added expenses.”

After a rainy spring, the past several weeks of dry weather have moved the project forward at a quick pace. The site already had some challenges because it includes some wetlands and a high water table, so a lot more can get done during a series of dry days.

“We’ve gotten more done in the past three weeks than we did in the first two months,” RTD Project Manager James Hull said.

City officials said they have been pleased with the work of RTD, which is based in Zephyrhills, Fla.

“Our plant construction project is going well,” City Manager Larry Wood said. “Now that we’re into it, I’m more comfortable with RTD handling the project. The project manager out there is a real hands-on guy and I’ve been pleased with their progress. They don’t give excuses; they get results and that’s what you’ve got to have with a project like that.”