$2.1 million Liberty water project: the who, what, where, when and why

By John Estridge

A public hearing was held at the beginning of the Liberty Town Council Monday, April 5, meeting concerning the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) grant application for a $700,000 grant to help pay for a $2.1 million water project in and around Liberty.

Mike Kleinpeter of Kleinpeter Consulting as well as Adam Sitka, engineer; and Annie Hayes, public relations of Wessler and Associates, talked about the nuts and bolts of the project such as where, when, why and what.

Kleinpeter is the grant writer for the town on the project. He said there will be a site visit in May with the final application due on June 25. On August 12, OCRA will make the grant awards.

Wessler’s employees said the project is planned to replace 520 linear feet of pipe on Hoffman Road. Currently, there is a two-inch galvanized steel pipe with a four-inch ductile iron pipe planned to be put in its place. Another 1,120 linear feet of four-inch asbestos cement pipe will be replaced with six-inch ductile iron pipe on Duffy Lane.

On Park Hill Drive, 1,350 feet of six-inch asbestos cement pipe will be replaced with six-inch ductile iron pipe. Another 220 feet of six-inch asbestos cement pipe will be replaced with six-inch ductile iron pipe on Avondale Court. On East Lane Street, 660 feet of two-inch galvanized steel pipe will be replaced with four-inch ductile iron pipe. Finally, 1,950 feet of four-inch cast iron pipe on Eaton Street will be replaced with six- and eight-inch ductile iron pipe.

It is the Eaton Street pipe, which will cost the most, and it is arguably the most needed part of the project. It will cost $656,000 alone. Since 1994, there have been 14 water main breaks on Eaton Street. And the Eaton Street pipe feeds the Union County/College Corner Joint School District schools in that area: Liberty Elementary, Union County Middle School, Union County High School and its gymnasium as well as the Red Brick or Administration Building.

It also serves residents in the area.

Hoffman Road water main is the most problematic of late with three breaks during the 2020 pandemic year alone and 10 since 1994. In all, there have been 29 water main breaks in the lines at Hoffman Road, Eaton Street and East Lane Street since 1994. Liberty Utilities and Street Manager Matt Reuss explained the problems with trying to fix some of the water mains.

He said five people respond to water main breaks, and he described their positions: two people are in the hole, one person operates the equipment and Reuss and another employee control valves.

At the Hoffman Road breaks in 2020, the five people were at the site for 3.5 to four hours each time. And the problem was one break would beget another.

“We would fix a break and as soon as we’d get ready to close the hole up, we would look and we would notice the pipe would burst on up the line again,” Reuss said. “We’d get water running again and as soon as we got the clamp on, it started again.”

He said that was also happening on Park Hill Drive.

“With that asbestos cement, as soon as we fix it, we put a new piece of pipe in, didn’t even get it shut down, and I got home and Melissa (Shepler, clerk/treasurer) called me right away and said someone called and said it broke again. We got it fixed in about 4.5 hours, but once we put pressure back to it, it blew again.”

Also, by increasing the pipes’ diameters, this will increase the water pressure going to customers.

For the project, the estimated construction costs will be $1,688,000 with non-construction costs at $412,000 for a total of $2.1 million.

Wessler’s schedule for the project includes: survey start, June 2021; design start, July 2021; complete design finished, October 2021; permits submitted, October 2021; permits received, November 2021; Advertise bids, November 2021; open bids, December 2021; OCRA deadline for obtaining bids, January 12, 2022; award contract, January 2022; begin construction, first quarter, 2022; and end construction, December 2022.