The Gloucester Board of Supervisors authorized a $773,638 loan from the county’s general fund to its utility fund Tuesday night for the purpose of sewer expansion in the Terrapin Cove area of Gloucester Point.

Previously, the board had approved expenditure of up to $250,000 for this project, utilities director Martin M. Schlesinger said, but the lowest current bid was by Basic Construction for $561,442, which is more than twice the engineering estimate the board had been provided. That bid remains valid through June 7.

Schlesinger and the board discussed ways to trim costs of the sewer expansion project such as reducing the thickness of the asphalt overlay that might be used. He said he will discuss this with Basic to see if the company can lower its bid a bit.

“The financial stability of the utility fund is a struggle and expected to be a struggle until debt service requirements of the system drop in fiscal year 2018 (the last payment due in fiscal year 2019 is in a deb...