Jefferson City Council to vote on costly sewer main rehab project

Jefferson City Council members are set to vote later this month on a more than $2.1 million sewer main rehabilitation project.

The bill, which calls for a contract with SAK Construction, was introduced to City Council on Monday night

The project in Basin 13, or the Schellridge area, would help prevent overflows and basement backups, according to Jefferson City Public Works.

The current sewer mains have cracks and leaks that are letting water get in during wet weather.

“When it rains a lot, the groundwater seeps into those and fills them up,” Public Works director Matt Morasch said. “And so then you might get backups in people’s basements– potentially, not everyone’s– but there’s potential for it or overflows out of manholes where the water would come out of the manhole and then run into the creek untreated.”

The project was required by a 2014 consent order from the Environmental Protection Agency.

If passed, crews would install new linings inside the sanitary sewer mains. The low-impact solution would prevent crews from having to dig up miles of pipelines through residents’ yards, according to Morasch.

“There’s a lining called a sock,” Morasch said. “It goes in these things and then it’s cured in place. It’s basically expanded and cured and so it’s like a new pipe inside the old pipe so then it doesn’t leak anymore. No cracks.”

The project would also repair two failing storm-sewer systems with a similar lining, including a deteriorated length of pipe ABC 17 News reported on last September that caused a big sinkhole off Jason Drive.

If passed, about 90 percent of the project will be paid for by the city’s wastewater fund. The rest will be funded through the city’s sales tax fund for stormwater projects.

Crews will start work on the project shortly after the council’s decision. The work is expected to last about nine months.