On time and on budget -- that's the prognosis for American Fork's pressurized irrigation system.

Initially planned to take three years of construction, it's only been two years since the vote that approved $47 million in bonds to finance it, and it is nearing completion.

"The council asked us to get it done in two years instead of three," said director of public works Howard Denney. "There would be less impact on the citizens. The other reason is that such things as bond payments are decreased and potential inflation would be avoided."

At the end of October, the City Council approved $1.3 million for the construction of the upper reservoir, one of two that will provide the majority of water for outdoor use in the community. It should be ready for use when the secondary water is available to the residents again in April. It will be near the mouth of American Fork Canyon and have a capacity of 5.5 million gallons. The lower reservoir is near Fox Hollow Golf Course and had a grand opening during the summer.

All in all, the system includes two reservoirs, around 110 miles of pipe of various diameters, three filter stations, a connection into the Central Utah Project pipeline and the Murdock Canal.

With winter approaching, the work for this season is winding down.

"We are wrapping up almost all of our existing construction projects," said project manager John Schiess.

Mayor Heber Thompson said he was happy about the progress.

"I am overall extremely pleased with the work the contractors have done on the PI system throughout the city," he said. Thompson said he occasionally receives complaints, but most of the feedback he hears from residents is positive.

"The most regular comment I get from citizens is that they feel the contractors have done a very good job and quite quickly as well," he said. "We are on schedule and under budget."

Projections show that the construction of the system could come in slightly under budget, but Thompson said he would like to make sure everything is completed to satisfaction and would use the necessary funds to do that.

"I think we would first look to see that we have got the whole system working and finished well," he said. "We should make sure we have all the expenditures in place to ensure the long-term functioning of the system."

After that is done, it would be up to the city to determine whether to use any excess funds or to put them toward paying off the bonds.

"If there are funds left over, the City Council would have to decide," he said. "I would imagine we would look to see what we can do to improve roads and sidewalks. Any expenditure has to be project-related." Since the voters approved the money for the pressurized irrigation, those funds need to be used for that only, he explained. Thompson said it was easy to relate road and sidewalk repair to the work that was done to install the system throughout the city.

In fact, some extra work has already been done with an eye toward expanding the system in the future.

"We have already done some extra piping in areas where we hadn't planned," Schiess said.

Denney gave an example of putting casings under the railroad tracks and river, which would allow for future expansion. That would save money because it would cost more to go under additional train tracks when the FrontRunner line is put in, he said.

Planning for that more distant future has not affected the near future.

"By next April most everybody will have service," Schiess said.

City Engineer Andy Spencer agreed.

"It should be 99 percent of the residents," he said. "Throughout the year next year we will be wrapping things up, tweaking." That includes patching some of the trenches that did not meet the surrounding pavement.

Spencer said the city would enforce the one-year warranty provision for patches that do not meet the standard, but did not expect the roads to be repaired to pre-construction condition.

"We are working with contractors to repair areas that have not met one-year warranty," he said. Spencer said that residents who note serious problems should call the PI hotline at (801) 763-5281.

Spencer said there was both good news and bad news about the project, relating to the current economic conditions.

"The good news is the project will finish on time and on budget," he said. "We were able to stay on budget and accomplish more than we thought we would. The recession took out the inflation factor." He said because contractors were anxious to have work, they made bids that were favorable to the city, and because the economy was flat, the costs of construction did not increase over the time period.

"The bad news is that the growth isn't there as was anticipated in the system program," he said.

Denney explained that when the city looked at paying off the bond, it planned on using fees paid by residents for the water system, plus impact fees from future development.

"One of the things we anticipated to pay off the bonds was impact fees," he said.