The Ellerbe-Rockingham-Richmond County Wastewater Regionalization Project will likely need a time extension of 90 days, according to engineers, and could take until July to be completed.
“We are nearing the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Jean Klein, grant administrator with the Lumber River Council of Governments. “Everything that has happened is really normal for big projects.”
“We’ve got a few little problems we are trying to get worked out,” said Ellerbe Mayor Buddy Cooper, at the Ellerbe Town Hall on Monday during the monthly project meeting. “It may not be done until June or July. We’re just waiting on some information,” he said.
The information they are waiting on will come from Progress Energy, said Engineer Lee Humphrey.
“They have got to determine how they will bring power to the pump sites,” said Humphrey. “The project by then will be basically 98 percent completed but it will be contingent upon them.”
Humphrey was optimistic about the project’s budget.
“The way it looks right now it will come in substantially under budget,” said Humphrey. “After the project we will begin working on the existing lagoon but I honestly don’t know how long it will take. They just changed the regulations for it and I have to review them. It could be four months.”
According to Hobbs, Upchurch and Associates, Terry’s Plumbing Crews (TPU) have laid 6,751 feet of pipe for Contract One. Pump station 1 in Ellerbe has electrical work of erecting the rack on hold until workers resolve an issue involving getting old gravity lines into the new wet well. Pump station 2 on Highway 220 business is nearly completed and TPU is testing lines.
“Last week, we obtained an easement from David Stewart which allows us to shift this line back behind the power poles to get away from the existing 3-foot force main line, five cables in the ground and away from 220 business so we don’t undermine the highway while trenching for this line,” said Humphrey at the project meeting. “We will core MH1 to receive a 6-foot sewer service stub-out for Stewart and his sons, and further up the road three 4-foot stub-outs for the three houses closer to Ellerbe.”
“Terry’s Plumbing has the three contracts and they have been so generous,” said Klein. “Their willingness to do extra work has been great, such as take a tree down here and there. It’s gone extra well. This time extension is normal, and our biggest push for time will be closing the lagoons.”
— Staff Writer Dawn M. Kurry can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 15, or by email at dkurry@civitasmedia.com.
Post a Comment
