Engineers present new system plans
WEST BROWNSVILLE – During a special workshop Thursday, the Center West Joint Sewage Authority met with engineers to review the plans for an upcoming sewage project. “This was a special meeting we had to show what we have planned so far for the design of the new system,” said engineer Bob Bible.
Bible is responsible for the plans for the Centerville portion of the project, and he and Bruce Chambers, West Brownsville’s engineer, both said that their plans are about 95 percent complete.
“We’re just cleaning them up right now and are in the process of finalizing everything,” said Bible.
Chairman Dan Kendall said the board might want to have the engineers make some minor changes to the current plans, but for the most part the plans will remain as they are.
“Today we primarily reviewed all of the drawings, and we may want to have the engineers reroute some things,” said Kendall. “For instance, we might try to do more gravity flow in some areas as opposed to using grinder pumps.”
Kendall said that so far, the only major construction done on a road in West Brownsville for the project is expected to be on Middle Street.
“That is where our main sewer connection will be,” said Kendall.
Bible said that for the Centerville part of the project, the authority should be able to do most of the work along the roads and in alleys, so that crews don’t have to close a whole road.
In West Brownsville, Kendall said, a pump station will be built near the Lane-Bane Bridge, one near the intersection of Main Street and Broadway and one near Locust Street.
In Centerville, the pump stations will be built on Main Street and along Route 88 near Low Hill Street. Kendall said the plant site will be at the East End Road intersection with Low Hill Road, as that location has been verbally approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and the authority is waiting only for written approval.
Kendall said the authority will hold public meetings at which the public can review the final plans for the project after Jan. 1. The board expects to bid for the project in early spring or summer and begin construction by early fall.
“We plan to be in operation in 2005,” said Kendall.
Bible said the schedule of the project has basically gone according to plan.
“We may have been a few months behind, but it hasn’t been bad at all,” sad Bible. “Everything has been running pretty close to what we expected.”