MARK CRESSOTTI
WESTFIELD – The Water Commission approved a funding request for the design of two sewer improvement projects presented by City Engineer Mark Cressotti last night.
Cressotti said that both project will position the city to extend sewer service into neighborhoods currently without sewers, but which have been included in the city’s sewer expansion program.
The board approved $60,420 for design of a sewer line on Big Wood Drive that will be extended in the future to include nearby residential streets such as Blueberry Ridge and Pineridge Drive.
“There is a resident on the cul-de-sac section of Big Wood Drive whose septic system is failing and whose property backs up to Shaker Road,” Cressotti said. “He is willing to give us a sewer easement through his property and to share the cost of the design work.”
Cressotti said that design work will include calculations to extend the sewer line to the neighborhood currently not served by city sewers.
“Strategically we need to get sewers in there,” Cressotti said. “The resident is looking to grant a sewer easement to service that entire neighborhood. This is as good, if not better, than other alternatives and it sets up for future extension.”
Initially the resident and neighbors on the cul-de-sac will have sewer service, but the design will allow that line to be extended. The commission awarded the contract to Rob Levesque & Associates of Westfield. Cressotti estimated construction of the initial stage at $120,000.
The second project is much larger in scale, replacing a sewerage pump station now servicing Westfield High School on Montgomery Road. The current pump station was designed to serve only the school and not the adjoining neighborhood and is connected to the city’s sewer system by a pressurized line.
Water Resource Superintendent Dave Billips said that he is planning to upgrade a number of the systems aging pump stations, but has identified “critical ones” that need to be replaced in the near future. Billips said that each station will cost between $500,000 and $750,000 to replace and that he will seek City Council approval for a $7 million bond package.
“When the Montgomery Road pump station backs up, it backs up into the Westfield High School swimming pool,” Billips said. “I need to get Montgomery Road on the upgrade list so if the bond is approved we can move quickly.”
Cressotti said the current pump station, serving WHS, is a shallow system, but that the new facility will be a deep pump station to allow installation of a gravity sewer line servicing residences and businesses along Montgomery Road. The pump station will then push the sewerage through a pressurized line to connect with existing gravity feed lines.
The commission awarded a $150,000 design and engineering contract to CDM of East Hartford.
