Date: Fri 06-Dec-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

sewers-Whitten

Full Text:

Sewer Project Is About 80 Percent Complete

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

The town's sanitary sewer construction project is about 80 percent complete,

according to John Whitten, senior field representative for Fuss and O'Neill,

Inc, the town's consulting engineer.

Work on the $34.3-million project is expected to conclude next fall.

Baltazar Contractors' workers were on Mt Pleasant Road this week doing some

preliminary construction work, Mr Whitten said. The workmen plan to return to

that area next spring to extend sewer lines from the intersection of Mt

Pleasant Road and Diamond Drive to the base of Mt Pleasant Road, near the

Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps garage.

During this week, sewer installers were placing pipe under East Street, a

short dead-end road that extends eastward from Main Street near Edmond Town

Hall. Traffic delays ensued on Main Street as police stopped motorists to let

heavy equipment cross the road.

Mr Whitten said that upcoming winter weather shouldn't pose any problems to

work crews who plan to use directional drilling to install sewer pipes along

the east side of Main Street, between East Street and Glover Avenue.

Directional drilling will be used to minimize the damage done to the many

large trees lining the thoroughfare.

Work on the sewage treatment plant at the end of Commerce Road is progressing

so well that it is actually ahead of schedule, Mr Whitten said. Workmen expect

to link the end of Commerce Road to the treatment plant site by January, he

added. The existing turnaround at the end of Commerce Road will be eliminated

and a new turnaround will be built farther to the east to provide access to

the plant.

Construction specifications are out to bid on four sewage pumping stations.

The stations will pump sewage uphill from low points on the periphery of the

sewer system.

West Street has received a final repaving after having been torn up for sewer

line installation. Wendover Road, The Boulevard and Budd Drive also have

received their final repavings, according to Mr Whitten, who serves as the

chief sewer inspector.

Still scheduled to receive their final new surfaces are the "Presidential"

streets, and also Juniper Road, Baldwin Road, Nettleton Avenue and Birch Rise

Drive.

Workmen started sewer construction in November 1994, and except for periods of

extreme weather during winter seasons, have continued digging the miles of

trenches for the sewage collector system which traverses the Borough, Taunton

Pond North, and Sandy Hook Center.

After the sewer system is complete, the town will set a time period during

which residential and non-residential customers will be required to connect

their wastewater drains to the system. The length of time that sewer users

will have to connect to the system hasn't yet been set by the Water Pollution

Control Authority (WPCA). The "out of pocket" costs that sewer users will bear

to connect to the system will vary depending on the complexity of their

particular sewer hookup.

After the new joint municipal-state sewage treatment plant is operating, the

sewage now treated by Fairfield Hills' existing treatment plant will be

diverted to the new plant. Sewage flows to the plant will then gradually

increase as an increasing number of municipal customers connect to the system.

When it is complete, the sewer system will include approximately 23 miles, or

about 121,000 feet of sewer mains and lateral sewer lines, Mr Whitten said.

That figure doesn't include the amount of sewer drainpipe which will extend

from buildings to the lateral lines.

Building a municipal sewer system was discussed for decades before voters

approved bonding for the project in 1992. The system is being built to rectify

longstanding groundwater pollution caused by failing septic systems.