Date: Fri 08-Aug-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewer-pump-station-Whitten

Full Text:

Finally Pieces Of Sewer System Are Falling Together

(with photos)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Workmen have positioned equipment shelters at the four sewage pumping stations

designed to power the municipal sewer system.

Using a heavy-duty crane August 1, riggers from Industrial Riggers, Inc, of

Waterbury swung four 60,000-pound reinforced-concrete shelters off flatbed

trucks and onto concrete pads at the four pumping stations.

The stations are located near the end of Taunton Lake Drive; on Baldwin Road;

on Hanover Road near Blakeslee Drive; and on Glen Road near Church Hill Road.

After they were lowered onto their sites, the shelters were grouted to level

them, thus protecting their floors from cracking when emergency generators are

running. The generators will keep the pumping stations running during

electrical outages.

Each shelter houses a diesel-powered electric generator, an air compressor and

various electrical equipment required to run the pumping station.

Due to the hilly local topography, the sewer system can't run solely with

gravity-powered sewers.

Relatively low, outlying sections of the system require that sewage be pumped

uphill in "force mains" until it reaches a point where it flows downhill under

the force of gravity. In other areas where gravity sewers aren't practical or

pumping stations aren't economical, grinder pumps are used to power low

pressure sewers.

John Whitten, senior field representative for Fuss and O'Neill, Inc, the

town's consulting engineer, said Monday that when completed, the equipment

shelters at the sewage pumping stations will resemble large garden sheds.

Decorative roof trusses will be added. The roofs will be shingled. Vinyl

siding will be affixed to the shelter walls.

Also, the areas near the four shelters will be landscaped with a mixture of

trees and bushes. The decorative touches were added to have the stations blend

into their neighborhood surroundings.

The shelters will have security lighting attached to the walls which face

streets.

The emergency diesel generator within each equipment shelter will be run

periodically to ensure it's in good working order, Mr Whitten said.

Monitoring equipment within each shelter will be electronically linked to the

control room at the sewage treatment plant off Commerce Road, allowing the

sewage plant operator to check each pump station's status and to adjust

controls.

Kovacs Construction Corp is the general contractor for the pumping station

work at $1.53 million. Kovacs was low bidder on the project.

Pumping station construction was delayed by difficulties the town faced in

acquiring property for the facilities.

When completed, the town sewer system will be managed by Professional Services

Group, a Houston-based management firm that's in the business of operating

sewage treatment plants and water supply systems.

The sewer system is expected to be completed in September, after which

property owners will connect to it. The $34.3-million sewering project is

intended to rectify groundwater pollution projects in Sandy Hook, the Borough

and Taunton Pond North.