A project that will replace thousands of feet of aging sewer line in downtown Ellijay is about a quarter done.
At a meeting of the Ellijay-Gilmer County Water and Sewerage Authority board last week, Gary McVey, water authority director, gave an update on the north Ellijay sewer trunk line rehab work.
The project, which has been centered on McCutchen Street between Ellijay Elementary School and First United Methodist Church the past few weeks, focuses on a sewer trunk line between Cox Creek and River Street, McVey noted. The rehab work is being done by hired contractor RDJE Inc., of Newnan.
A total of 3,498 feet of sewer line is expected to be replaced, and the trunk line size will be increased from 10-inch to 12-inch pipe. The sewer line being replaced is made of clay and around 50 years old, McVey noted.
“Some of the small, offshoot sewer mains (are being) replaced with the same size piping in accordance with the engineer’s recommendation,” he added.
Much of the old sewer line is being replaced using trenchless pipe bursting technology, which allows for the underground repairs to be done without disrupting the above surface.
“What they’re doing is pulling these lines, and as they pull a new line in, they burst the old one out. It’s a pretty interesting way of doing things,” McVey said. “They go in the old pipe, pull a cable through and pull the new pipe in as the other one bursts out of the way.”
Rehabbing 66 vertical feet of existing manhole structures and construction of 39 vertical feet of new standard manhole structures is also part of the work. Bypass pumping, which uses manholes and temporary sewer line run underneath McCutchen Street, is being done so the sewer main that’s being worked on doesn’t have to be taken out of use.
“They have completed pulling two of the five lines. On Wednesday, they were looking at doing two lines at one time,” McVey said during the April 25 meeting.
The City of Ellijay recently had McCutcheon Street paved, but that wasn’t part of this project, McVey noted. Should any asphalt damage occur, it will be repaired by the sewer contractor as part of their work, he added. The street was just restriped last week.
McVey noted the contractor expects to be done by the end of the water authority’s fiscal year, which is June 30.
“It’s going really well. They’re planning to be completed by the time we gave them to do the project,” he said.
A second phase of Ellijay sewer line work is being planned for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
“(We hope to) continue rehabilitation of some more of the trunk line from River Street as it goes down South Main Street,” McVey said.
In other news ...
Board members approved expenses not to exceed $26,252 to rebuild two influent pumps at the wastewater treatment plant and expenses not to exceed $7,997 for removing and cleaning a clarifier at the wastewater plant so it can be repaired.
Due to the nature of what goes through the wastewater plant machinery, it’s necessary to hire a company that specializes in environmental cleanup for the clarifier cleaning, McVey said.
Also approved was an expense not to exceed $49,390 for adding an upgraded SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) control panel at the authority’s raw water intake and integration of controls at the water treatment plant.
Supply chain issues are causing delays in a mass water meter changeout in which manually read meters are being replaced with digitally read equipment.
McVey said the water authority recently received enough new digital meters to do another route, but did not get the transmitters that are also needed.
The water meter vendor has indicated it could be late this year before availability of the meters and transmitters returns to some kind of normalcy, he noted.