(6/8) The City Council approved the capital improvement plan that sets capital improvement projects through 2028.
Several months ago, discussion was held regarding potential savings related to current water and sewer rehabilitation projects. Using the unit cost for Inflow and Infiltration (I and I), water loss, and a deteriorated pipe factor, the department applied those numbers to other projects in the capital improvement program.
On the sewer side, the city would be looking at a total engineering projection of $91,000 a year in reduced sewer processing related to I and I.
City water projects include Roberts Mill Road and Broad Street, Fairground Avenue, and George, Middle, and West View Drive. Estimated water project savings are approximately $70,600, he said.
The combined total would be approximately $161,600 in projected savings by doing these projects, City Manager James Wieprecht said.
Meanwhile, Wieprecht told the City Council that the construction has been completed for the replacement portion of the Meadowbrook interceptor replacement.
The project is now merely awaiting the vegetation to come back into the point that the grading inspector will close out the grading permit and then that project segment will be complete, Wieprecht said.
The city is holding off on the lining portion of the Meadowbrook interceptor in order to include it with the other lining projects for Fiscal Year 2023, "in hopes that we’ll get a lower rate per linear foot by bidding a larger amount to be done," he said.
So far, the public works department has already reported observations of decreased flows to the York Street pumping Station just through this segment being done. "So I’m optimistic that these projects are going to do what we need them to," Wieprecht said.
A key component of the ‘wild water’ reduction program undergone by the city has been the upgrading of the Meadowbrook Interceptor, which runs from the Meadowbrook Development to the York Street Pump Station.
The Meadowbrook Interceptor was cleaned and televised in June 2020 and is to be rehabilitated by a combination of replacement segments and lining where possible.
Construction for the Micro-C Bulk Storage and the waste treatment plant’s sludge dewatering upgrade have also both been delayed due to equipment and delivery delays, according to Town consultant, Brian Lubenow, environmental engineer, and project manager with CDM Smith.
By the Spring of 2022 Lubenow had said he hoped to identify additional inflow and ‘wild water’ reduction projects and will brief the town council on the potential reductions in ‘wild water’ flow, and in doing so, move the city closer to meeting mandatory wastewater runoff limits.
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