MIDDLESEX TWP — The cost to rebuild the dam at Glade Run Lake will be $1.5 million less than expected.

Siggy Pehel, president of the Glade Run Lake Conservancy, said Tuesday that the low bid for the job came in at a little more than $2.8 million.

Including contingency funds to cover unforeseen costs, the project should cost about $3 million, Pehel said.

The project was estimated at $4.5 million.

The lake was drained in 2011 for safety reasons because the dam was structurally insufficient. Pehel and a handful of other citizens soon after the lake was drained formed the Glade Run Lake Conservancy, and began raising awareness and money to rebuild the dam.

Once former Gov. Tom Corbett approved partial funding for the project through the state Fish and Boat Commission, the conservancy’s board pledged the money raised through memberships, donations, trust bequests and fund raisers to help pay for the construction of the new dam.

“We are all ecstatic that it came in under the amount estimated,” Pehel said. “It means our contribution, which was about $300,000, will no longer be needed.”

Pehel said the money raised by the conservancy now will be used to dredge the shallow end of the lake to create 10-foot deep channels to increase the lake’s fish population by 30 percent to 35 percent.

The money also will be used for an addition to the existing jetty that will allow people with disabilities to drop a fishing line into 10 to 15 feet of water