Schertz’s $894,164 water-main bid raises a question in the city’s own price records

Schertz water customers could gain a more reliable IH-10 main. Before the proposed contract moves forward, the city’s packet presents two different bid counts and medians.

By Comal.News Government Desk · Source-linked local reporting

Published October 8, 2026 at 10:30 PM CDT3 min read

Proposed for Oct. 13

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Two blue pipes lie beside a highway running through pale grassland, with shrubs and a smaller road in the distance. — Illustration: Water pipes beside a highway represent the proposed main; the scene does not depict the reported work.Original editorial illustration; not a photograph and does not depict the reported event or an exact property.Comal.News Visual Desk · Original illustration · Source ↗ · Comal.News original illustration ↗

Schertz is weighing a $894,164 bid from RL Jones for a 12-inch water main along IH-10 from Graytown Road to Pfeil Road, with a proposed contract ceiling of $1 million.

The planned 12-inch main would replace an undersized 2-inch line and create a loop intended to improve redundancy for water customers. The proposal is Resolution 26-R-108 in the city’s Oct. 13 council packet.

The city describes the existing segment as an undersized 2-inch water line. That makes the proposed work a service-reliability project as well as a construction purchase. The packet says a separate Lower Seguin Road-to-Ware Seguin Road segment is awaiting an easement and would be bid separately. The price now before council covers the Graytown-to-Pfeil work, not that later segment.

Five prices—and two different bid counts

The five tabulated bids are RL Jones at $894,164; Nelson Lewis at $1,085,305.70; Guerra Underground at $1,152,429.26; E-Z Bel at $1,260,831; and Qro Mex at $1,672,482. The engineer’s estimate, including contingency, is $1,455,137.02. These figures put the low offer below both the other bids and the estimate, but they do not establish why RL Jones priced the work as it did.

Five bids, proposed authorization ceiling and engineer estimate for the Graytown-to-Pfeil water main, October 2026
Price or benchmark	Amount
RL Jones bid	$894,164
Proposed authorization ceiling	$1,000,000
Nelson Lewis bid	$1,085,305.70
Guerra Underground bid	$1,152,429.26
E-Z Bel bid	$1,260,831
Engineer estimate, including contingency	$1,455,137.02
Qro Mex bid	$1,672,482

Bid and estimate figures come from the city packet; the order is by dollar amount.

An engineer’s letter in the same packet says three bids were received and gives a $1,206,630.13 median. A Comal.News calculation from the five tabulated bids puts the median at $1,152,429.26. The tabulation and letter therefore present different counts and medians for what appears to be the same procurement. An official reconciliation would establish which comparison the city intends to rely on.

One line item illustrates why the total-bid ranking does not explain each bidder’s pricing. For 4,539 linear feet of 12-inch PVC installed by open cut, RL Jones listed $115 per foot; Nelson Lewis listed $105, Guerra Underground $121.13, E-Z Bel $134 and Qro Mex $170. RL Jones was not the lowest on that line. The full schedule, including the quantities and prices of other work, matters to the total.

What the ceiling buys—and how the city would pay

The authorization ceiling is $105,836 above RL Jones’s bid. That is the difference between a proposed maximum and a bid, not a realized saving or an identified change-order budget. The council memo names 2018 certificates-of-obligation bonds as the project funding source, while the draft resolution names water impact fees and bonds. A capital-project sheet presents both water-main segments together at $4,892,302, including $3,776,377 in water impact fees and $1,115,925 in bonds; those combined-project figures should not be assigned wholesale to this one proposed contract.

Council is scheduled to consider Resolution 26-R-108 on Oct. 13; any contract award remains proposed. The resulting council action, an executed contract and project accounting would show the authorized work, final terms and funding allocation. Readers can inspect the resolution, bid tabulation and engineer’s letter in the city’s meeting packet while those questions remain open.

From the source record

IH-10 water main price comparison · dollars

RL Jones$894,164

Nelson Lewis$1,085,305.70

Guerra Underground$1,152,429.26

E-Z Bel$1,260,831

Engineer estimate$1,455,137.02

Qro Mex$1,672,482

The proposed $1 million authorization ceiling appears in the table below. Bids and estimate are different kinds of figures.

Comal.News comparison of the city’s five-bid tabulation and engineer’s estimate in the Oct. 13 council packet.A lower bid is a proposed contract price, not a realized project saving.