Massive storm sewer project will shut down roads in city
A massive undertaking in Uniontown to separate storm water from raw sewage set to begin Monday will send motorists on detours. Signs and flagmen will aid in directing traffic as the project kicks off on North Mount Vernon Avenue and will spread to many city streets throughout the next 12 months.
“It’s going to be a mess,” said Phil Mahoney, Uniontown’s superintendent of sanitary and storm water. Detours and road closures will result from four contractors working at the same time at different locations. Mahoney added some of the contractors will have two crews working at the same time on different streets.
While most of the work will start within the next two weeks, North Mount Vernon Avenue, from Pittsburgh Street to Princeton Avenue, will be closed starting Monday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“This isn’t something we want to do. This is something we have to do,” Mahoney said. “The nail hit the head here two years ago when we got the consent order.”
The order from the state Department of Environmental Protection gave the city 10 years to upgrade its combined sewer system, which discharged untreated sewage from combined sewer overflows (CSO) into Redstone Creek during heavy rainstorms.
Mahoney said heavy storm runoff triggers the CSOs to push sewage from the lines into the creek so the lines can accommodate the storm water. In effect, the sewage would end up in the creek, which is a Monongahela River tributary, and the storm water would go to the sewage treatment plant, he said.
“CSOs are no longer allowed” by the DEP, Mahoney said, noting that the city had 27 CSOs, but 19 already have been eliminated.
Mahoney said the city started the separation project about 10 years ago, well before the DEP order, and it is 65 percent complete.
“We’re ahead of the game as far as separating,” Mahoney said.
To finish the project, the city received a 1-percent, 30-year loan for $5.7 million from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST).
PENNVEST also approved a $14.8-million loan for the Greater Uniontown Sewage Plant Authority to upgrade and expand the plant, which also was a subject of the DEP consent order. The authority board received bids for the work but has yet to award construction contracts.
Uniontown along with North Union and South Union townships use the plant and will share the loan obligation.
The city’s work involves installing new sanitary lines under some roads, storm lines under others and a 4,200-foot-long, 30-inch-diameter interceptor line along a railroad right-of-way. Uniontown city council awarded contracts for the projects last year.
Mahoney said Kukurin Contracting Inc. of Export already started the $647,476 interceptor line, and Pompei and Sons Inc. of Bentleyville began the $862,727 storm-line work, which includes North Mount Vernon Avenue.
Pompei also will install storm lines under Princeton Avenue, Gilmore Street, Stockton Avenue, Martha Street, Bierer Avenue, Highland Avenue, Lawn Avenue, Maurice Street, South Street, Church Street and an alley that runs parallel to Church Street.
A third, $529,759 contract was awarded to Liokareas Construction Co. Inc. of Bethel Park to install storm lines under Ray Street and the west side of Highland Avenue, and a sanitary line under Morgantown Street, between Summit and Highland avenues.
Tedesco and Son Inc. of Pittsburgh won a $3.3-million contract to install new sanitary lines under East Main, Fayette, Grant, Connellsville, West Main and Morgantown streets. Work on West Main Street will start at Oakland Avenue, and work on Morgantown Street will start at Fayette Street and proceed south.
“All four will be working in about two weeks,” Mahoney said, adding that the contractors soon will scout for drop sites for the materials they will use.
He said about 100 miles of new line will be installed in the separation project.
Contractors have a year to complete the work and will decide which streets they will work on and when. Mahoney said Tedesco probably will start on Fayette and Grant streets.
Chester Engineers, the city’s engineering firm, will have inspectors at each work site, Mahoney said.
City council and the mayor decided to have the lines installed at the same time, to avoid increases in construction costs that probably would occur if the work was stretched over more than one year, Councilman Bob Cerjanec said. He said contractors pay their workers prevailing wages, which rise annually.
Cerjanec also said the city does not begin repaying the low-interest loan until the installation work is done.
When the work is finished around this time in 2004, the separation project will be 90 percent complete.
City workers will do the remaining work, which will include connecting all the new lines and installing some smaller sections of lines, Mahoney said.
Some of the already completed work includes the installation of a new storm line under Penn Street. The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority paid for that project with Community Development Block Grant funds. Pompei did the work for $119,267.
Work under Craig Street and a few other streets was done previously.
The city also has ordered all residents to remove rain downspouts from their sanitary sewers, but not everyone has complied, Mahoney said.
“When this is all said and done, all rain spouts will have to come out,” he said.
Cerjanec said downspout inspections will resume in the spring.