Nearly four years ago, more than 2 million gallons of untreated sewage spewed into Nantucket Harbor after the sewer main along South Beach Street suffered a catastrophic failure during a winter storm in January 2018. A temporary fix remains in place, but now the bill is coming due for a permanent solution.
The Select Board on Wednesday approved a $23.2 million contract for the construction of a new force main that will run from the downtown area out to the Surfside Wastewater Treatment Facility. The massive project will get underway next month, or more likely, by early next year due to supply chain issues that area already posing problems for the contractor, Robert B. Our, Co. Inc. With more than three miles of new force main set to be installed, the project is expected to take as long as three years to complete.
The complex and challenging work will require partial street closures in the downtown area and along some of the most heavily travelled roads on the island. The plan, Sewer Department director David Gray said, is to jump the line from one side of the street to another to avoid damaging the roots of some of the island’s oldest and most beloved Elm trees along the route, especially those along Pleasant Street.
“The biggest trees we’re going to come near are on Pleasant Street from Silver Street to Atlantic Avenue,” Gray said. “We’ll be in the sidewalk on the Silver Street side to avoid as many of those trees as we can. We’re going to do our absolute best to avoid any trees, and we’ll be in touch with the tree warden throughout the project.”
Additionally, Surfside Road, which is currently under construction due to another sewer project, will have to be opened up again. Not to mention that work will have to be paused during the summer months, Gray said, adding to the complexity and the duration of the project.
The $23 million contract with Robert B. Our, Co. Inc., for the project that was approved this week was actually significantly below the $32 million appropriation voters had endorsed for the work during the 2020 Annual Town Meeting. There were only two bidders for the contract.
When complete, the project will allow the town to abandon an old 16-inch force main that currently connects the Sea Street pump station to the Surfside treatment plant. That force main was installed in the 1930s, and although it was rehabilitated in 1983-84, a study conducted following the catastrophic failure on South Beach Street concluded the town should no longer rely on it to help carry the daily 3 million gallons of wastewater that flows from downtown out to Surfside.
Gray said the town will be mailing more than 530 letters to all of the abutting property owners along the route of the new main, and there will be a dedicated web site for the project to provide updates on its progress.
The streets included in the project are:
- Sea Street
- Step Lane
- Centre Street
- Lily Street
- Liberty Street
- Winter Street
- Pine Street
- Silver Street
- Pleasant Street
- Atlantic Avenue
- Surfside Road
- South Shore Road.
