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NORTH MASON — The Belfair Water District plans to divide its pipeline replacement project along Highway 3 into two separate projects because of unforeseen costs.

The state Department of Transportation requires the water district to replace 8,000 feet of pipe beneath Highway 3 because of the state’s impending widening project along the same stretch of highway in Belfair.

Other utilities, including Mason County Public Utility District No. 3, Cascade Natural Gas and CenturyLink, have already moved their utility poles and wires out of the state’s right of way.

However, the water district has run into problems because of the cost of the project — the district had obtained a $1.9 million Public Works Trust Fund loan, but the lowest bid for the project came out at $2.4 million.

“It’s been a real struggle,” said Tom Peadon, Belfair Water’s general manager, at Tuesday’s Mason County commissioners meeting in Belfair. “We cannot award a bid when we don’t have the money for it.”

The water district has decided to segment the project, focusing first on replacing the pipe from Sweetwater Creek near Belfair Elementary to Romance Hill Road.

The district has applied for a Department of Health Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan that could award the district another $1.5 million to complete the project from Romance Hill Road to Cokelet Lane near Kitsap Bank.

“It’s a tough project because there are utilities all up and down that highway,” Peadon said. “We’ve had a few issues with DOT, but for the most part we’ve worked congenially.”

The district awarded the bid to Port Orchard construction firm Pacific Coast General LLC, which began work Tuesday and plans to finish by Nov. 15 on the first segment of the project.

The district is replacing its aging asbestos cement 8-inch diameter pipe with a 12-inch diameter ductile iron pipe, per the request of the DOT for safety reasons, Peadon said.

Once the entirety of the new pipe is put in, the district will pay DOT to remove the old pipe. The new pipe should last 100 years, Peadon added.

The district raised rates 38 percent in October 2012 and 15 percent this year to make loan payments on the project but does not plan to raise rates much higher to pay for the increased project costs, Peadon said.

Belfair Water District Commissioner Mike Pope said he believed the district might qualify for loan forgiveness if it obtained the Department of Health loan.

“That’s what they’ve told us because our rates are some of the highest in the state for only 500-plus customers,” Pope said. “We were forced into this because of the widening, yet the rates affect only a few customers (of the widening). We wish we could be spending that money on a systemwide upgrade.”

The widening project is on the shelf now until utilities complete their projects, said DOT Project Engineer Karen Boone.

“We’re looking at a March time frame to let contracts go out, with a start in mid-May to June of next year,” she said. “It might take two construction seasons.”

Work on the widening will take place mostly at night, and any daytime construction will require two open lanes of traffic at all times, Boone added.

For information on the Belfair Water District, call the district at 360-275-3008. For more on the Highway 3 widening, go to www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr3/belfairimprovements.