Utilities Department publishes capital improvement list

Lorain’s Utilities Department has drawn up a five-year wish list for improvements to the city’s water and sewer lines.

This month the Utilities Department published a five-year capital improvement plan with water and sewer projects totaling more than $56 million.

Plans are in place for the 2018 projects, but improvements after next year will depend on available money, need and recommendations from consultants working with the city, said Utilities

Director Paul Wilson.

He spoke about those plans recently with SafetyService Director Dan Given.

Lorain residents will see water and sewer rate increases again starting Jan. 1.

The rate hikes are needed to improve the underground network of pipes that delivers clean water to homes and flushes dirty water away.

Much of the work is needed to maintain or improve capacity, but Lorain’s underground pipes and its treatment facilities are feeling the effects of age, Given said.

That holds true on the west side, where residents sometimes complain the area now has too many houses, he said. “Martin’s

Run” is the creek that drains the west side, but the name has been incorporated in new development in that part of the city.

“People are saying, well, if you didn’t have all this housing on the west side, you wouldn’t have these problems,” but that is not always true, Given said. “Most of the things were doing now, we’re doing just because of age. Everything’s worn out.”

The Martin’s Run pump station dates from the 1970s. Its mechanical and electronic parts are getting old, Given said.

“A lot of the things that we’re doing, we’re doing just because they’re obsolete, they’re inefficient and they’re worn out,” Given said. “We’re doing it now because we were finally able to raise the rates that start making the improvements for hopefully the next 30 years.”

To determine the need

and schedule of future projects, the Lorain Board of Control, made up of Given and Mayor Chase Ritenauer, has approved spending up to $500,000 for Cornwell Engineering Group to create a 10-year water supply master plan for the Utilities Department. The board approved the request Nov. 27. The 2018 water projects: • Red Hill water main improvement is a redesign of the water main in that part of the city, Wilson said.

The added transmission line will boost water pressure in the area around the city water tower at Elyria Avenue and Cooper Foster Park Road, Wilson said. It will be built in 2019 with an estimated cost of $6.5 million.

There will be replacement waterlines for Denver, Toledo, Clifton, Canton, Omaha avenues and part of Amherst Avenue; East 39, Dewitt and Harriet streets.

There will be a new 12-inch water main installed along East 36th Street and Dunton Avenue, according to plans.

• South Lorain Phase 3 Water Main Improvements, $3.88 million.

That project continues replacing old and undersized waterlines.

• West Lorain Water Main Improvements, $4.1 million.

The project continues replacing some of the oldest and worst waterlines in that part of the city.

The work largely will be on Rita Drive from Oxford Drive to West 38th Street; Skyline Drive and West 35th Street from Leavitt Road to Oberlin Avenue and Oberlin Avenue from Tower Boulevard to Meister Road. There will a stretch of waterline replaced on West Eighth Street from Allison Avenue to Oberlin Avenue.

The 2018 sewer projects:

• Black River WWTP bar screen, $1 million. The project is a new screen at the entrance pipe into the plant; the screen blocks grit, debris and rocks from flowing into the plant.

The project is mandated by the Ohio EPA.

• Martin’s Run Pump Station improvements will be designed. Estimated cost is $350,000.

• Sewer rehabilitation will take place at various locations for $1 million.

The water main projects largely will entail open cuts through street pavement and treelawns as needed, Wilson said.

The sewer work largely will be underground and not tear up the streets as much. When installing new liners in the sewer pipes, crews use manholes and pits, but won’t have to dig into the pavement as much as with waterlines, Wilson said.