Client: City of Ely
As one of the fastest growing cities in Iowa, the City of Ely is in a unique situation in which it is continually working to upgrade their sanitary sewer system to handle the additional growth. The Hoosier Creek Trunk Sewer project is one of the major projects that provided significant additional sanitary sewer capacity for portions of the existing City as well as future growth areas.
This project replaced a portion of undersized sanitary sewer main within the City and extended the sanitary sewer further north along Hoosier Creek on the west side of the City. This extension provides sanitary sewer to portions of the City which do not have service, as well as provides sanitary sewer for future growth areas. Some of these growth areas are already within he City and planned for development, while others are anticipated to be future growth areas.
MMS prepared a preliminary design report in August 2017 outlining the potential future growth areas which could be served by water and sewer extensions into the northern areas of Ely. This report was used to determine how the projects would be funded and to inform the citizens of Ely about the need for these projects. Several public forums were held in which MMS attended and helped answer questions from citizens. This project was funded using the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) utilizing low interest loans from the State.
MMS provided comprehensive design and construction services for this project, including topographic and boundary survey, assisting with easement acquisition, preparation of temporary and permanent easement plats, permitting, final design plans and specifications and bidding, and construction staking, oversight and administration. The project had a letting in October 2021. The awarded bid amount for the project was $2,247,398.66. The engineer’s estimate for the project was $1,887,290.00. The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to higher costs on this project.
The most challenging aspect of the design of this project was the property acquisition from 20 property owners, some within and some outside of the City. Property acquisitions caused some delays for the project but in the end the City was able to acquire all of the property needed without using imminent domain. Another challenge was working within the floodplain of Hoosier Creek, which required floodplain and wetlands permitting for the construction. For this project, polypropylene pipe was used for the larger sized sanitary sewer mains, partially due to supply chain issues with PVC pipe but also due to cost savings using the pipe for larger sizes.
Construction began in late fall 2021 and continued through 2022. Groundwater infiltration into the sanitary sewer trench proved to be a significant issue during construction, causing construction delays. However, MMS was able to work with the City and contractor to maintain progress on the project while battling the groundwater issues. Construction was completed in early 2023.