AMERICUS — The Americus city sewer system is getting a major facelift with a $1.6 million dollar renovation of everything from the lagoons to the piping.
The project, which started around Thanksgiving, is 70 percent complete. The contractor, King’s Construction Co. of Oskaloosa, was given 200 working days to complete the project and are approximately 65 working days into the project, said Bruce Boettcher of BG Consultants, the engineering firm for the project. The project’s cost was offset by a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Kansas Department of Commerce.
Boettcher said the project is a city-wide sanitary sewer improvement project that breaks down into four parts. The first part of the project involved Americus’ three lagoons. The first lagoon was doubled in size and the other two lagoons had improvements made to them. The lagoons are about 80 or 90 percent complete.
“They really are making a good upgrade,” Boettcher said. “The (large) lagoon should be big enough for 20-plus years if not 40-plus years.”
The second part of the project includes improvements to the city’s lift stations, which are pumps that take raw wastewater sewage and pump it out. The sewage cannot travel upward by itself, Boettcher said.
Improvements are being made to the actual collection lines in town to the tune of 5,290 linear feet. Manholes are being replaced or repaired as crews go along.
Some pipes are being repaired instead of being completely replaced. Boettcher said a company called Insituform out of Belton, Mo., is doing CIPP (cured in place pipe) repairs to some of the pipes. This process involves pipes that are not severely damaged, but have cracks and are absorbing ground water.
The CIPP process uses custom-manufactured felt tubes that have a polyester thermosetting resin, Boettcher said. The tubes are inserted into the damaged section of the pipe. Water pressure is used to propel the tube through the pipe, turning the tube inside out like a sock. The water solidifies the substance, making it hard. Once in place, a cutter cuts through the wall of the new pipe, reinstating the service connections.
A project of this size was daunting to the city of Americus, Boettcher said.
“I can’t say enough of the city council, city staff and city clerk,” he said. “The city took it on as a pro-active project not a reactive project.”
Boettcher said when the weather improves, progress will resume quickly.
“Hopefully the weather will break,” he said. “There are some things that they can’t do until the weather warms up.”
The contractor, however, is still well ahead of schedule.
“We did have a rough winter, but the contractor got out and did a lot of dirt work before it got cold,” Boettcher said.