News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville will consider a bid to improve the storm and sanitary sewer lines at the intersection of Spring Street and South Walnut Avenue.
Water and Sewer Department Director Barry Turner said the plan is to increase the sizes of the lines and move them out from under buildings in the area. Turner said the bid came in at some $1.5 million, about $400,000 over what had been budgeted.
“Both the sanitary and the storm are undersized at that location,” Tuner said. “So that will give the capacity for that development up there as well as some other things up Cedar that we’ve already allocated capacity to. But the storm, I think they’ve had some trouble there.”
Turner said the city should be able to save the $100,000 allowance budgeted for the project but there are no options to cut additional costs. Turner said the work is expected to begin in March and will take around three months to complete.
Cookeville City Council will consider the bid at its Thursday meeting.
“(The contractor) will be taking some measures to keep things flowing while he’s doing the work,” Turner said. “So (it) won’t impact much as far as the storm system and the sanitary system.”
Turner said there will be a greater impact on traffic in the area while project is underway. Turner said one lane of traffic will stay open on the road regardless of the work.
“They’ll have to cross Spring with both the sanitary and the storm sewer,” Turner said. “It’ll be a pretty good undertaking crossing Spring so that will disrupt traffic there.”
Turner said the project came about after a developer contributed $50,000 to help up-size a portion of sanitary sewer line around where Spring Street and Cedar Avenue connect. Turner said his department decided to make it one large project because the sanitary lines in the area were already on their radar.
“When we got rolling on the sanitary the public works department said, hey, they need to upgrade their line, too,” Turner said. “So we made it a joint project.”
