Commissioners OK sewer project

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A sewer expansion project that could eventually open areas south of Seymour to development recently cleared its last hurdle.

The $15.5 million U.S. 50 (Tipton Street) Southeast Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Project, first proposed in early 2013, received approval from Jackson County Commissioners on Tuesday morning.

In 2014, city officials approved sewage works revenue bonds to pay for those improvements to the sanitary sewer collection system. The bonds would be paid back over a period of 20 years or less using revenue from the city’s sewer utility, which bills homes and businesses for sewer use based on water consumption.

Dann Barrett, a project manager with United Consulting in Indianapolis, said the company will finalize the project and advertise bids. Once the bid goes out and is accepted by the Seymour City Council, construction will begin.

“We are looking to get that project out for bids sometime this year,” he said following the meeting. “We’re still working through model and design.”

Approval from the county was needed because some of the work is within a 2-mile fringe the county controls outside Seymour’s city limits.

“Some of the work is in the city limits, and some is outside,” he said, adding the system will cross nine of the county’s roadways.

Commissioners approved the plan but requested an open line of communication with the county’s highway department as construction is completed near county roads.

“We want to ensure the roads are put back appropriately after the construction finishes for the project,” Commissioner Drew Markel said.

Barrett said the project also recently received approval from the county soil and drainage board, and permits have been issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

The work is aimed to ease sewer capacity issues at the systems south of U.S. 50 (Tipton Street) and to open an area for future growth, Barrett said.

Money from the bonds will be for the purchase of right of way along the projected sewer route and to construct a new 60-inch sanitary sewer line. That line would intercept and divert sewage flow from East Tipton Street, taking it south along Sandy Branch Creek to a proposed regional lift station at East County Road 340N, allowing the city to discontinue the use of five or six existing lift stations.

Sewage flow would then continue through a proposed force main from the lift station west toward South Walnut Street on its way to connecting with an existing line that would carry it to the city’s water pollution control plant.

Currently, the city has a self-imposed sewer ban in the affected area, meaning no new sewer hookups are being allowed east of Burkart Boulevard at this time. That ban will end once the project is completed, said Randy Hamilton, superintendent of Seymour Water Pollution Control.

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