OXFORD — Selectmen on Tuesday chose Sargent Corp. to lay a custom foundation and install an outflow pipe for a state-of-the-art sewer facility.

The Bangor-based company’s price for the work is $2.87 million, the lowest bid and significantly below offers from other competitors considered at a special selectmen meeting on Tuesday night. 

The company was awarded a $3.67 million contract in May to install miles of sewer lines from near the intersection of Routes 26 and 121: south on Route 26 to near Lane Road; a short distance east on Route 121; and north on Route 26 to King Street.

Sargent’s offer was nearly $400,000 less than Turner-based K&K Construction and $800,000 less than Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp.

Town Manager Michael Chammings speculated the company was able to find significant savings in their bid offer because personnel and equipment needed for the project were already mobilized. 

The system Oxford is proposing uses a series of fine mesh screens, or membranes, to slough off solids rather than traditional, chemical methods of sterilization. The facility will be fed by miles of sewer lines along Route 26 and extending onto King Street, which is Route 121.

The plant will sterilize wastewater before discharging it into the Little Androscoggin River.

Construction is expected to begin within the month. Construction bids for the facility’s walls and roof are expected to go out later this year.

The membrane treatment equipment bid, awarded separately for $1.2 million and currently in storage, was awarded to an international water treatment company last December. 

Engineers previously estimated the facility will have a 20-year lifespan and will cost $38,500 annually to operate. The total life cycle cost of the system is $2.88 million, which will be funded through user fees.

Sewage is expected to be flowing through the facility by next spring. 

The town has spent in nearly $7.74 million on the entire project thus far. In April, the town received $23.7 million in federal funding.