Date: Fri 21-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewer-Queen-St-paving

Full Text:

Queen Street Sewer Work To Begin Next Week with photo

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Workmen plan to start digging sewer trenches July 24 or 25 on Queen Street as

the town's sewer construction project heads into the central business

district.

John Whitten, chief inspector on the sewering project, said July 19 workmen

will start opening up trenches at the intersection of Grand Place and Queen

Street and work their way northbound on Queen Street to Church Hill Road.

Queen Street will remain open to traffic as the project progresses.

Sewer workers want to complete that section of Queen Street by the end of

August so that the installation work won't interfere with school bus traffic

at Newtown Middle School during the 1995-96 school year, according to Mr

Whitten. CB Utilities of Bristol, RI, is the contractor for this section of

the sewering project. The contractors also plan to place temporary pavement

atop refilled sewer trenches on Queen Street before the Labor Day parade on

September 4.

There are many utility lines buried beneath Queen Street, Mr Whitten noted.

The trenching required on the street will be fairly deep to make the

gravity-based sewer system function, he added.

In the area near the intersection of Grand Place and Queen Street, trenching

will be about 18 to 19 feet deep. Near the Queen Street shopping centers,

trenches will be about 12 feet deep. At the intersection of Queen Street and

Church Hill Road, the trench will be about 10 to 11 feet deep.

Sections of 15-inch-diameter polyvinyl chloride plastic sewer pipe will be

installed beneath Queen Street. That pipe is now stockpiled in front yards

along the street.

Generally, the deeper that sewer pipe is buried, the fewer linear feet the

sewer project will progress daily, Mr Whitten said. In areas where the

trenches are deep, roughly 50 to 60 feet of sewer pipe is buried daily. In

places where the trenching is shallower, roughly 100 to 150 feet of pipe can

buried each day, he said.

West Street

As sewer installers work on Queen Street, they will continue to work on West

Street. Sewer trenching was in progress July 19 on West Street near Roosevelt

Drive, Mr Whitten said. Until sewering work on West Street is completed,

possibly by mid-August, West Street will be closed to through traffic from 7

am on Mondays to 6 pm on Thursdays. The street is closed to through traffic

during those periods because wide construction equipment on the narrow road

prevents the through-flow of traffic. West Street will remain open to local

traffic.

Sewer installers hope to get work on West Street done before school resumes

because schoool buses use that street on their routes, Mr Whitten said.

After sewer installation is done and the refilled sewer trenches settle

somewhat, temporary pavement is placed over the areas where the street has

been opened.

Permanent Paving

Permanent overlay paving work will be done this fall on roads which now have

temporary pavement strips above sewer lines, Mr Whitten said. These roads

include Diamond Drive, the Taunton Lake Drive road network, Currituck Road,

Curry Drive, Hanover Road, Blakeslee Drive, Hall Lane, Sealand Drive, Sunset

Hill and Academy Lane. Permanent paving is done after the temporary paving

settles into the ground. The paving work is done in stages so that the final

course of asphalt doesn't sink into the ground.

Mr Whitten said that construction workers will do final landscaping work in

those areas this fall.

Sewer lines will be installed next year along Mount Pleasant Road to link

sewer lines in the Diamond Drive and Taunton Lake Drive areas to the town

center.

The town is under a state Department of Environmental Protection pollution

abatement order to rectify numerous septic system failures in Taunton Pond

North, the Borough, and Sandy Hook Center. The ground water pollution problems

stem from the presence of poorly drained soils in areas with high construction

densities. The $30.5-million sewer system being built to correct the pollution

problems is scheduled to be in operation in the spring of 1997.