$764,000 project scheduled for next year

**A $764,000 sewer lining project will be handled mainly through manhole covers such as this one on Wolf Street in Deloit.** Photos by Dan Mundt

The City of Deloit was recently awarded a $370,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

The funds will be used to help pay for a project to upgrade the city's sanitary sewer collection system.

The preliminary estimate for the total cost of the project is $764,000, according to Terry Crawford, project engineer/land surveyor with Sundquist Engineering of Denison.

Sundquist Engineering is handling the design phase of the project and will oversee the work once a contractor is chosen.

Deloit City Clerk Corrine Mehaffey said the city plans to take bids for the project over the winter.

If it stays on schedule, the project would begin in the spring or summer, she said.

“The scope of the project is to reline almost all of their sanitary sewer collection system in town,” Crawford said. “This is their original system; the piping is vitrified clay pipe that’s hardly ever used anymore.”

The main problem with Deloit’s sewer system is that roots have intruded into the pipes; when roots penetrate joints in the system, the joints deteriorate.

“That kind of pipe will crack under certain loading conditions,” he said. “Those old clay sewers tend to leak a lot of water, and eventually some of them will crumble and have to be dug up and fixed.”

So much groundwater leaks into the sewer system that the town’s lagoon system can’t hold all the output of the system.

“They have to discharge their lagoons more than they are supposed to, according to the DNR,” Crawford said.

Sundquist Engineering has been developing a plan for Deloit’s sewers for several years.

“(Project Engineer) Joe Rueschenberg was involved with it before me, and he wrote a report dated November 2021 that was called a Facility Plan for the Wastewater Collection System Improvements in Deloit; that’s basically what this project is based on,” Crawford said.

Prior to Rueschenberg’s report, MSA Professional Services, of Des Moines, sent cameras into the sewer system to create a detailed analysis of where the problems were occurring.

“Joe’s report was written based on that,” he said. “He concluded that it’s going to be more cost-effective to reline the sewer pipe than to dig it up and replace it.”

When Rueschenberg left the firm, Crawford took over the project.

The first step when the project begins will be to cut and remove all the roots from the sewer system and make any necessary repairs.

The relining process involves inserting a flexible tube of material into the sewer; Crawford compared the tube’s material to that of a fire hose.

“They lower it in through the manhole and all the way through the line to the next manhole,” he said. “Once they get that all in place, they will use infrared heat and the plastic material will expand and conform to the inside diameter of the existing pipe. When it cools off, it solidifies and forms an interior liner to the pipe.”

The new liner will prevent root infiltration into the system.

“The next big task is to go in back up the pipe with a machine that will cut out the new piece of plastic to allow the lateral sewer to drain into it,” Crawford said.

Story Ads 1

**The Deloit lagoons, located mostly out of view south of town, fill up too quickly due to groundwater penetration of the city sewer. A relining project will keep roots from penetrating the sewer pipes.**

The project will take place in two phases.

“In Phase 1, they have about 5,700 lineal feet and in Phase 2 they have 4,400 lineal feet,” he said.

The construction work is estimated to cost between $610,000 and $620,000; design work, letting of the project, construction inspection, grant administration, legal fees, bonding and interest (if the project requires a construction loan) bring the estimated total to $764,000.

Region XII Council of Governments helped secure the $370,000 CDBG grant for the project.

“The rest of the money will probably have to come in the form of a loan through the USDA RD (Rural Development),” Crawford said.

If the USDA RD funds come in the form of a loan, the City of Deloit will have to look for ways to repay it.

Raising user fees is a less-than-ideal option because many people in Deloit are on fixed incomes, he noted.

“They’re still hoping some of the money from USDA RD will be a grant,” Crawford said.

Because of USDA guidelines that have to be followed if USDA funds are used for the project, the cost per foot was capped at $40.

Crawford said a Denison contractor told him it couldn’t be done for that price.

“We’ll find out when we take the bids; hopefully, we’ll get enough contractors bidding it that we’ll get the price down close to that threshold of $40,” he said.

If everything falls into place, the project could be done by this time next year, Crawford said.

Follow us on Facebook for the latest news and updates