Page Title

Huber

Funeral Home & Cremation Services

952-474-9595

Tom O’Connell, CPA

Income Tax Preparation. 952-474-6509

St. Victoria Catholic Church

Victoria * 952-443-2661

This is the first in a series of monthly notices you will receive from us. This notice provides a map and background information about the project; future notices will keep you up to date on the construction progress.

Purpose of the Project. MCES is constructing new, larger, interceptor sewer pipes. (An interceptor is a regional sanitary sewer pipe that collects wastewater from individual communities and conveys it to one of our regional treatment plants.)

Construction of these new sewers will allow MCES to close its Schutz Lake Lift Station and its Baycliffe Lift Station, each of which has capacity constraints. The new sewers will increase capacity and improve reliability to serve anticipated growth and development in Victoria and the surrounding area, and a new carbon filtration structure will mitigate nuisance sewer odors.

Facilities to be Constructed. South Lake Virginia Shores Park will be the main area of construction, though additional work will take place at various points along three sewer pipe routes. (MCES is working with the City of Victoria on plans to restore the park post-construction.)

First, a vertical shaft, approximately 25 feet wide and 76 feet deep will be excavated in the park. Then, three 8-foot diameter tunnels to house the new sewer pipes, ranging from 30 to 115 feet deep, will be bored from this access shaft:

1) Rolling Acres Road Tunnel. This 3,250-foot tunnel will go to the south under Hwy 7 and under the west side of Rolling Acres Road, connecting to an existing MCES sewer at the Schutz Lake Lift Station (southeast corner of Schutz Lake, west of the intersection of Rolling Acres Road and Saint Moritz). Work on the tunnel and its access shafts will occur from fall 2009 through spring 2011.

2) Highway 7 Tunnel. This 3,230-foot tunnel will go to the northwest under the north side of Highway 7, connecting to an existing MCES sewer at the Baycliffe Lift Station (near the intersection of Hwy 7 and Baycliffe Drive). Work on the tunnel’s access shafts may begin this year and will continue during 2010, and work on the tunnel is scheduled for spring 2011 through spring 2012.

3) Smithtown Road Tunnel. This 612-foot tunnel will go to the northeast under Smithtown Road. It will end at Smithtown Terrace, where it will connect to a new MCES sewer that was constructed in 2008. The tunneling and excavation of an access shaft at the northeast end of the tunnel is scheduled for spring 2012.

The three stretches of sewer pipe will come together at an underground, concrete junction structure in the park. Above this structure, at ground level, will be the odor control building, faced with decorative brick.

Construction Activities. To facilitate the tunneling, 13 additional access shafts will be excavated, at approximately 500-foot intervals. These shafts will be used for removing dirt from the tunnels, installing sewer pipe, and removing the tunnel-boring machine.

While each tunnel is being bored, a heavy steel and wood reinforcement is constructed inside the tunnel. Six-foot diameter sewer pipes will be installed in the tunnels. The vacant space between the pipe and the tunnel walls will be filled with cement-like grout. After construction, the shafts will be topped off with manhole covers at ground level to provide ongoing access for MCES sewer operation and maintenance crews.

The work along Rolling Acres Road and Hwy 7 will be done off the roadways. The roads and their side streets should remain open throughout the project. The Smithtown Road Tunnel will have an access shaft at its ending point, requiring the closure of Smithtown Road at Smithtown Terrace for approximately one month in spring 2012.

Contractor employee parking will be restricted to the main construction site in South Lake Virginia Shore Park; limited temporary parking for construction management and maintenance personnel will be allowed at the other work sites.

Temporary driveways will be constructed to connect the tunnel access shaft work sites to public roads. Please be alert for dump trucks, excavators, and other construction traffic entering and exiting these roads. Flaggers will direct traffic as needed.

The week of October 12th, MCES’s contractor, Lametti & Sons, will begin work at the park and tunnel access shaft sites along Rolling Acres Road. Before excavating tunnel access shafts, the contractor will construct its temporary driveways, clear trees and bushes as needed from the construction sites, and install silt fences and security fences. (Post-construction landscape restoration will include planting of new trees and bushes.)

Click here to continue this letter.