Lafayette residents can expect to see more large drainage pipe installed under city streets, and sewer customers can expect an increase in rates next year.
The Board of Public Works and Safety on Tuesday cleared the way for the city to embark on the third phase of its 20-year plan to upgrade sewer infrastructure and reduce the amount of untreated wastewater that flows into the Wabash River during heavy rains.
City Water Pollution Control Director Brad Talley says the projects build onto the drainage improvements installed this year on Greenbush Street between 27th and Erie streets.
Talley says new 72-inch and 84-inch pipe will be extended from Erie Street at Market Square Shopping Center, down Brown Street, then tie into a large pipe that runs to the sewage treatment plant on Wabash Avenue.
Also, a new 60-inch line will be installed under Greenbush Street from Erie Street to a new underground holding tank near Lyboult Sports Park on Canal Road.
“It will now go into a 4.2 million gallon storage tank, be stored there until the rain is finished, and then pumped back into the collection system so that we can bring it to the waste water treatment plant for treatment,” Talley says.
Controller Mike Jones says sewage fees will likely increase next year, after the city sells up to $57 million dollars in bonds to finance the projects.
He says the amount of the fee increase isn’t yet known because the city’s financial advisors are currently evaluating the costs.
The city council and board of works must approve any sewage rate hikes.
Lafayette sewage rates last increased in 2015, the final year of a three-phase fee hike to fund a $34 million dollar expansion of sewer lines to carry runoff from Earl Avenue to South 18th Street and into the Durkees Run watershed.
Talley says it will take approximately 18 months to complete the Greenbush projects, which are part of the city’s agreement to comply with state and federal environmental regulations.
“This is the third phase of that plan, with two more after this,” Talley says. “The plan is scheduled to be finished in 2029.”
Talley says the final projects include improvements to an underground sewage tunnel in downtown Lafayette, and then building a high-capacity treatment facility near the existing plant.
