Broken, unmarked sewer lines delay Sterling’s Light Street construction

The Sterling City Council has approved additional sewer work on Light Street after crews uncovered a broken, unmarked sanitary sewer line beneath the road.

The City Council voted Monday to waive the competitive bid process, approving a $143,766 quote from Helm Construction to replace the damaged sewer line. The work includes installing new connections that will allow buildings tied to the old line to connect to the new system once their existing service fails.

City officials said the project was already intended to add parking, improve drainage, install a storm sewer and organize dumpsters behind downtown businesses. A former gravel lot also is being converted into a paved parking lot.

City Manager Scott Shumard said moving forward with the repairs now will avoid greater headaches in the future.

“The choice was to go ahead and hope that it keeps flowing, or to fix it now, while we’ve got it opened up,” Shumard said. “This is an inconvenience. It adds about four or five weeks to the project, but that’s better than going back in three years and creating a five- or six-week problem for everybody, and tearing up everything we’ve just done.”

Construction began July 23, with an original completion date of Oct. 1. The sewer replacement work is expected to push the project back by about six weeks, with crews now aiming for Nov. 11.

The additional sewer work comes on top of the $408,141 reconstruction contract the council awarded to Helm in July, raising the total project cost to $551,907. Shumard said the expense will be covered by the city’s sewer fund.

The old line, which collapsed during excavation, was not documented in city records. Shumard said record-keeping for underground infrastructure was less thorough a century ago, making it difficult to know the exact age of some utilities. He said the city now maintains its known sewer lines on a Geographic Information System.

Several buildings at 311-325 First Avenue are connected to the old line. The city is installing new service stubs so those properties can transition to the new system either immediately or in the future, depending on how their existing service lines are configured.

The city has installed directional signage and arranged parking accommodations in nearby lots for businesses affected by the extended construction. Sterling Main Street also has worked with the city to promote downtown businesses during the disruption, Shumard said.