DBTechnologies founder and owner David Branscomb was on site and getting his hands dirty alongside local helpers Wednesday, prepping the Hanceville facility that’ll soon host his startup high-tech fabrication company ahead of its upcoming move-in. DBTech got its start as an incubator project at Wallace State, but is making the big leap to its new permanent home — a repurposed industrial building along Alabama Highway 91 in east Hanceville.

HANCEVILLE — New infrastructure for a high-tech materials industry in Hanceville is a step closer to the construction phase, thanks to the city’s approval of seeking bids on a sewer extension to the facility’s site on the west side of town.

At its regular meeting this week, the Hanceville City Council approved the soliciting of bids for a westward extension of the water and sewer board’s existing sewer line along Alabama Highway 91. The short extension will reach to the edge of town, where materials design and manufacturing firm DBTechnologies is readying a large, repurposed facility offered by the city’s industrial development board.

The new sewer line doesn’t traverse terrain that would extend new residential service to more residents. But it does meet a critical need for the company, while saving the city money thanks to a combination of grants that should cover most of the cost of the estimated $120,000 project.

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) awarded $100,000 toward the cost of the sewer work, while the Cullman County Community Development Commission contributed another $20,000.

The city and the Hanceville Water and Sewer Board are evenly splitting the approximate $22,000 cost of engineering work, and mayor Kenneth Nail said plans call for the project to be completed within the next 60 days — if, that is, the weather cooperates and excavation goes smoothly as the new line crosses Mud Creek.

“The creek crossing could complicate that schedule somewhat,” said Nail. “But we already have all of the DOT permits, as well as the environmental work done in advance. It’s just a matter of getting out there and working with what nature gives us.”