Work To Start Next Month On Hawleyville Sewer Line

By Andrew Gorosko

In early May, work crews are slated to start installing sewer lines along Mt Pleasant Road in Hawleyville in a project intended to foster economic development in that largely undeveloped section of town.

The installation of gravity sewers and force mains is expected to take about four months, said Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley. Mr Hurley said he expects Hawleyville sewers to be functioning by the end of September.

Besides sewer line installation, the project includes construction of a large sewage pumping station at the Homesteads at Newtown, a 298-unit elderly housing complex now under construction at 166 Mt Pleasant Road. The station is needed to pump sewage uphill along Mt Pleasant Road to the Bethel town line, where the wastewater will be discharged into Bethel sewers for transport to the Danbury sewage treatment plant.

It was construction of the housing complex on the 60-acre site that stimulated sewer construction. The sewering project has been in the planning stages for the past decade. In the early 1990s, residents agreed to spend approximately $2 million in connection with the eventual sewering of Hawleyville, including $1 million for sewage treatment capacity in Danbury, and $1 million for sewer pipe capacity in Bethel.

Voters at a February town meeting approved the $1.7 million sewering project, which is scheduled to begin soon.

The $1.7 million Hawleyville system will be the town’s second sewer system. Unlike the $34-million central sewer system, which began operation in 1997 to correct groundwater pollution problems caused by failing septic systems, the Hawleyville system is intended to spur economic development.

The Homesteads will assume about half of the capital costs of the $1.7 million project, Mr Hurley said. The sewer line will extend about 2,800 feet from the Homesteads to Bethel.

Property owners with holdings along the sewer route may apply to the town to connect. There are fewer than 20 potential sewer connections along that 2,800 foot run of pipe, Mr Hurley said.

The work slated to start in May is the first phase of a two-phase Hawleyville sewering project, which when completed would extend sewers about 10,000 feet into Hawleyville. When completed, sewer lines would continue eastward on Mt Pleasant Road to its intersection with Hawleyville Road and then northward on Hawleyville Road to the area of Exit 9 at Interstate-84.

It is unclear when the second phase of the sewering work would be done, Mr Hurley said, noting that the need to extend sewers will depend on a specific need for sewer service in the area. “The [development] market’s still hot out there,” Mr Hurley said, noting the second sewer construction phase could happen rapidly.

Overall costs for both sewer construction phases are estimated at about $4.8 million.

The first phase of sewer construction will involve installing gravity sewers and force mains along either side of Mt Pleasant Road, depending upon the location. In most areas, sewer lines will be installed along the road shoulder in areas that are either paved or covered with turf.

“The traffic will be maintained through the area,” Mr Hurley said, noting that although there will be traffic delays during construction, the road will remain open to motorists.

Installing sewers in Hawleyville is intended to shore up the local property tax base, Mr Hurley noted.

The availability of sewers makes possible facilities such as the Homesteads, which generate local property tax revenue, he said.

“It will provide tax revenue to help stabilize the cost of [public] development of the town,” Mr Hurley said, noting that such revenue would help defray the cost of the planned Grade 5/6 public school.

When it is completely built, the Homesteads is expected to contribute almost $900,000 annually in property taxes to the town, representing a form of local economic development, according to First selectman Herbert Rosenthal.

Homesteads officials expect the initial phase of the housing complex to open next fall. Completion of the Homesteads is projected for mid-2003. The project is the largest single private housing complex ever built locally.

Trumbull Construction of Trumbull is the contractor for sewer pipe installation. Kovacs Construction Corp of Danbury is the subcontractor for pumping station construction. John Whitten of Fuss and O’Neill, Inc., the town’s consulting engineers, will return to Newtown as chief inspector for the Hawleyville sewering project. Mr Whitten was chief inspector for the central sewer system.