September 3, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
The City of Smithville will soon undertake an almost one-million-dollar project to rehabilitate deteriorating sewer lines and manholes in certain parts of town including Earl Avenue, West Main Street, and Carter Street.
During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the aldermen voted to award a bid to the John T. Hall Construction Company of Sparta in the amount of $939,620 which was the least expensive of the three bids submitted. The other two bids were from Pipeworks of Tullahoma at $1,159,000 and H.L. Construction Management of Cleveland for $1,186,000.
Earlier this year the city had budgeted $750,000 from its share of American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) grant funds to cover costs of the rehab effort but as it turned out that amount was not enough. The city will make up the difference from its water and sewer fund reserves.
In March, the city contracted with J.R. Wauford & Company Consulting Engineers to provide services related to the project.
Daniel Tribble, Manager of Field Services for the J.R. Wauford Company who addressed the mayor and aldermen Thursday night, said the project will be done in phases.
“We had been requested to review sewer lines that had been identified by your city personnel that are subject to what is believed to be inflow. Inflow is simply when water that is collected in streets and roadways or flowing in ditches and creeks enters your sewer lines, which in turn increases the sewer that you have to treat at your wastewater plant. A lot of times the vitrified clay pipe (VCP) like any utility has a certain life span and over years it simply deteriorates. The reports we had received are that in this case gravels, dirt, and other material that is not sewer had been found in these locations where the sewer line is believed to be failing or collapsing which allows the debris and inflow into your sewer lines. More than likely these lines would be replaced with PVC pipe which is the standard 8-inch PVC that we call SDR-26 sewer line pipe,” said Tribble.
“Due to the cost of this job and the available funds we (J.R. Wauford Company) have proposed a phased approach to complete rehabilitation of the subject lines. Phase one of this project includes the open cut sewer replacement of approximately 2,700 feet of sewer line along Earl Avenue, West Main Street, and Carter Street. The second part of phase one of this job is the CCTV or closed-circuit television inspection of approximately 7,400 feet of sewer lines mostly in cross country areas that flow along creeks and not in roadways. Our plan is to review the CCTV footage and make a recommendation to the city as to the appropriate rehabilitation methods for these areas,” Tribble continued.
“We received three bids and sent a recommendation letter to the mayor. Our opinion and probable cost before the bid opening was approximately $800,000. This is to replace sewer lines along West Main Street, Carter Street, and Earl Avenue. You can see some of the streets sinking in which is evidence of the sewer lines failing in these locations. It was our recommendation based of a review of the bids and communication with the contractor that the project be awarded to John T. Hall Construction of Sparta at a unit price contract value of $939,620”, said Tribble
The project is expected to begin early next year.