Fairfield embarks on major sewer upgrade

FAIRFIELD - The east edge of Fairfield will receive new sewer line this year, but the town's residents shouldn't notice any disruption to the water in their homes.

The city is embarking on Step II of its program to rebuild portions of its sewer infrastructure. Step I involved rebuilding the section from the sewer plant to Lamson Woods on the southeast edge of town. Step II involves rebuilding the sewer from Lamson Woods to Maharishi International University, going around the outskirts of town along its eastern and northern edges.

The city hired French-Reneker-Associates to perform the engineering on the project, and to serve as the sight manager, representing the city's interests when dealing with contractors. French-Reneker Project Manager Stephen Pedrick said the general contractor, Maxwell Construction, will be able to construct a new sewer without ever interrupting sewer service to Fairfield residents. How? By building a series of detours around the old sewer lines as they are shut off and replaced with the new line.

Though the construction won't affect showers and toilets, it will create a few minor inconveniences. For instance, the Fairfield Loop Trail will be inaccessible between Lamson Woods and Chautauqua Park, as well as portions of the B Street Trail. Even though portions of the trail will remain intact, the public is advised not to use this section of the trail because it will be so close to the construction zone, where there will be trenches and other hazards.

The section of trail from Lamson Woods to Glasgow Road should be closed no more than five months, the area around Chautauqua Park no more than six months, and the B Street trail no more than two months.

The community orchard east of Chautauqua Park will be affected by the construction, too. The city agreed to relocate 12 trees before construction.

Most of the roads that intersect the sewer will not be affected because the contractor will bore a hole underneath them. However, a few roads will be closed since boring under them is either not feasible or not cost effective. One lane of Pleasant Plain Road near the Water Treatment Plan may be closed for up to three weeks. Badgett Drive near the outdoor Punj Tennis Courts at MIU will be reduced to one lane, and Granville Avenue running near the MIU Rec Center will be closed completely to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Forest Drive, a short road only a couple of blocks long east of Fairfield High School may be closed during the day but will reopen at night.

Fairfield City Engineer Melanie Carlson said that residents who live on the roads affected will be notified in advance as construction nears their home.

Chautauqua Park will remain open during construction but portions of the park will be closed. For instance, holes No. 2-4 of the disc golf course will be closed.

Pedrick said the city tried to disrupt traffic as little as possible by trenching only the low-volume roads, while boring under the high-traffic roads so they could remain open. Though more convenient to residents, the boring method is much more expensive. Pedrick said laying a 36-inch diameter sewer costs $157 per foot when it's trenched, but $1,350 per foot when it's bored.

The reason the city has undertaken this project is to reduce sewer overflows. The crux of the problem is that during heavy rains, the sewer plant receives more intake than it can treat, so it has to dump untreated sewage into creeks. Although the concentration of the sewage relative to the rainwater is very minute, the city still wants to reduce overflows any way possible. The new sewer line is 36 inches wide, compared to the old lines which are just 18 inches wide, which means more sewage can arrive at the plant without having to be diverted to creeks or manholes along the way.

The new sewer line will be more watertight than the existing line, which means fewer opportunities for rainwater to enter the sanitary sewer.

Those residents whose yards will be affected by construction have already been contacted by the city and have already signed easements granting the contractor access to their property.

Carlson said the project is a little ahead of schedule because of the nice weather, so it's still early, since it just began Feb. 3 and it has many months to go.

'The contractors are clearing [trees] and working in the wet areas while the ground still is frozen,” Carlson said. 'The weather has been good for outdoor work. We'll start the rainy season soon and that will probably change the contractors' schedule a bit.”

Carlson said the main thing she wants residents to know is that though they may see contractors clearing trees in a particular neighborhood, it does not mean the new sewer has advanced that far.

'Just because they're clearing trees next to Pleasant Plain Road doesn't mean the project is that far along,” she said. 'There are multiple crews working in stages. Right now, they're only laying pipe in the Neff Wetland Area by Lamson Woods.”

Carlson said the city plans to hire a company to study sewer flows on the west side of town, too, to see how large the new pipes need to be to accommodate the flow.

'When the sewer is bubbling out of a manhole, we have no way of quantifying it,” she said. 'The hydraulic study will help us quantify the overflows so we can size the pipes correctly. We're not automatically going to install 36-inch pipes like we did on the east side of town. We've been doing maintenance to the pipes on the west side of town, and we're hopeful the repairs to that side of town will be smaller.”

The cost of Step II is about $12 million. The price tag on Step I was $4 million, and the cost of refurbishing the sewer plant was $32 million.