Work Continues On Sandy Hook Water Line

By Andrew Gorosko

Work crews plan to return to Sandy Hook Center early next month to continue construction on extending a public water supply to the area with the goal of providing new water service to Sandy Hook by the end of the year.

The $675,000 project will extend a public water line down Church Hill Road into Sandy Hook Center to provide public water to Sandy Hook School on Dickinson Drive, Sandy Hook Firehouse on Riverside Road, and the town’s Multi-purpose Center on Riverside Road. The Multi-purpose Center contains the town’s Senior Citizens Center and the Children’s Adventure Center.

The owners of private residences and businesses along the water line may also seek public water connections. There are several dozen properties along the water line route.

The public water supply will provide a safe, reliable, potable water supply for human consumption and fire protection.

Extending water service to Sandy Hook Center has been in the talking stages for years and finally is happening, according to Fred Hurley, the town’s public works director.

Trumbull Construction, the firm that received a $391,445 construction contract for this phase of the water line project, recently installed ductile iron water pipe from the intersection of Washington Avenue and Crestwood Drive to a point on the west side of the Pootatuck River. In order to complete that pipe section, the firm installed iron water pipe in a concrete casing below the Pootatuck River’s riverbed.

High water conditions, which occurred when work was underway installing the pipe beneath the river, caused some riverbank erosion, which will need to be corrected, according to Conservation Official C. Stephen Driver. The riverbank sections that eroded will be restabilized, as needed, he said.

Workmen connected the pipe section that was recently installed to a section of empty water pipe that was already lying beneath Crestwood Dr. Workmen had installed the water pipe beneath Crestwood Dr several years ago when a sanitary sewer line was installed there.

Mr Hurley said the route that the Sandy Hook water line will follow is the most direct route to extend water service to Sandy Hook School.

When completed, the water line will extend eastward down Church Hill Road to 100 Church Hill Road. The line will head southward through a parking area and then cross beneath the Pootatuck River riverbed before reaching the intersection of Washington Avenue and Crestwood Drive. The line will then extend along Crestwood Drive to the rear yard of Sandy Hook School. From the school, water lines will extend to the firehouse and to the Multi-purpose Center.

Trumbull Construction’s contract calls for the installation of almost 4,000 linear feet of water pipe of various diameters. The firm is slated to resume water line construction work about November 1, Mr Hurley said.

United Water’s water supply system had remained on the west side of Interstate 84 until the mid-1990s when Walnut Tree Developers extended the water system across I-84 to provide water service to Walnut Tree Village, a condominium complex on Walnut Tree Hill Rd.

Mr Hurley said the town never had plans to extend the water main beneath the Church Hill Road bridge, which crosses over the Pootatuck River at the intersection of Church Hill Road, Washington Avenue, Riverside Road,- and Glen Road. A pipe route beneath the bridge would pose various hurdles, including blasting and business disruptions, he said.

In the future, water main extensions may be constructed in Sandy Hook Center to extend water service to addresses not directly adjacent to the water line now being installed, Mr Hurley said.

Also, in the future, public water service may be extended to the Tilson Woods 40-lot residential subdivision now under construction off Washington Avenue, to Treadwell Park, and to Newtown High School.

Mr Hurley said the town would like to have a public water supply in operation in Sandy Hook by the end of this year.