The “vintage 1930s” sewer lines at the Fairfield Hills campus are being replaced this summer, part of a $1.8 million project that will also pave the way for replacement of water lines, according to First Selectman Dan Rosenthal.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley said the work, which began in May, will “completely replace the current line with HDPE plastic pipe, and will place polymer liners inside existing cast iron pipes, a process called 'slip forming.'”

A major benefit of the upgrade is that currently the town has to put phosphates into the lines to protect from leaching metals into the water, and the town will no longer have to do that after the upgrade, said Hurley. Metals such as lead will no longer be a problem.

The town will still be required to maintain some chlorine residuals to guarantee disinfection of the water, however, even though the water coming from the campus’ wells is “almost pristine,” according to Hurley

Rosenthal said that while there is “no indication that sewage is leaking,” he did note that when there are rainstorms, the nearby sewage treatment plant finds rainwater in the sewage.

“This will make it so that no longer happens,” the first selectman said. “That’s one way this antiquated system does not function as a modern system would. This will help modernize the system.”

While the sewer project is going on, the town is in the Request For Proposal process for a water distribution line that is expected to go out in late summer.

Any repaving of roadways that had to be dug up because of the sewer lines will be done after the water lines are placed.

“The idea is that we’ll only have to repave once,” said Rosenthal, who noted that while the sewer lines are not going to be placed in the same areas as the water lines, doing both at the same time will prevent having to repave roads twice.

Hurley said that “the hope is that any disruption of the roadways will be repaved before winter.”

Work on the sewer side of the project is expected to finish in late summer or early fall. The officials hope the water side of the project will be finished before winter.

“There still may be work on the waterlines that will not impact the roadways that could continue,” said Hurley.

With 50% of the project cost coming from an Economic Development Administration grant, the other half will be bonded by the town, which will be repaid by Fairfield Hills campus users. For the water side, the primary source of payment will be through the American Rescue Plan. Earlier in the year, the town allocated $1.5 million of its $7.6 million allocation of ARP money towards the water line project.

Hurley said a back-up for the funding will be the fund balance of the Water & Sewer Authority.

The public works chief said he was not sure how far into the project the $1.5 million would take the water line project, which is divided up into four phases. When it was passed, the hope was that it will get the town through the first three phases. The town originally had $750,000 for the first phase in year five of last year’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan.

At a March Board of Selectmen meeting, Selectman Ed Schierloh said it makes sense to do more of the project at once rather than “stretching it out.” He also said that the pipes in the area are very old and he’s “sure they are at the point where they need to be replaced.”

Rosenthal said that as he has watched the work being done on campus for the sewer lines, the “design has been pretty surgical in how it impacts the overall campus.” He noted that the work has already been done on the other side of Wasserman Way and that a vault underneath Wasserman Way prevented any need to close Wasserman Way to traffic, in whole or part.

Rosenthal said the project will help support current and future activity on the campus. The sewage treatment plant has 100,000 gallons of capacity reserved for the campus, and its current activity has “barely scratched the surface of that.”

Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.