By Rich Pollack
After years of stops and starts, hurdles and hindrances and delays and disruptions, a long-awaited sewer lining project in Highland Beach could begin in the next few months.
After yet another delay.
Town leaders say crews are poised to begin the massive undertaking of lining 18,000 feet of sewer pipes beginning once the State Road A1A improvement project is completed.
The work will cost about $1.5 million, and the town will tap into reserves in its sewer fund to cover the cost.
Town officials had hoped to be able to start the sewer lining in September, but their timeline had to be pushed back again in August after state transportation officials said they would not be able to finish their road project by the Sept. 16 date they had previously announced.
The good news for residents and motorists who are weary from enduring months of lane closures on the main thoroughfare is that there will be minimal disruption during the pipe-lining project.
Rather than having to tear up the newly repaved road, crews doing the sewer lining will be working essentially from “manhole to manhole” using cameras to inspect the lines underground, then cleaning them before a liner of resin is inserted.
On the side streets, which have mostly single-family homes or smaller multifamily units, residents will be asked to be a bit more conservative in water use while crews are working outside.
The town will notify residents when work is being done in their area to let them know there will be minor disruptions.
When crews are working on sewer pipes along A1A, which has many multistory buildings alongside it, workers will reroute wastewater flows to prevent disruptions.
Town Manager Marshall Labadie said that an inspection of the lines several years ago showed that some of the sewer pipes that were more than 50 years old were in need of repair.
Crews discovered that there were areas where the pipes were leaking and areas where they were subject to water from the outside getting in, meaning the town was paying to treat wastewater it didn’t need to treat.
With the lining project, Labadie said, the town should be able to go another 50 to 75 years without having to rehabilitate the pipes.
“We’re shoring up our infrastructure,” Labadie said.
For the town, getting the project started has been a challenge.
“This was a very difficult project to get off center,” Labadie said.
He said the town started working on the project six years ago and found that the design process for the work took longer than expected.
Once the project went out for bid, the town received bids that came in too high, so the project was then modified and sent out for bid again.
This time there were no bidders.
Last year, the town went to residents and received voter approval to spend up to $3.5 million on the sewer lining project.
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