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| Large privately funded sewer project  The largest privately funded sewer project in the history of Sussex County-owned utilities was completed last year when a group of three developers, working with the Sussex County Engineering Department, designed and constructed $12-million in sewer infrastructure in the Millville. The work was begun in 2007, and the new system was "turned on" in June, 2008; the first customers hooked up in December. The system will provide for the wastewater needs of the area for the next 50-years. Sussex County systems are typically paid for with public funds and the sewer customers reimburse costs over the next 20 to 40 years.The Beaver Dam system was managed by The Millville Group, developers of Millville by the Sea, in cooperation with the Baltimore engineering firm of Whitman Requardt, representing the Sussex County government. The contractor on the project was George & Lynch of Dover, Delaware. The centerpiece of the project was a $4.5 million pump station that was built on land dedicated to the county by Millville by the Sea, Millville, DE. The pump station is as deep as a four-story building and is capable of pumping wastewater for over 15,000 new connections in the Millville, Clarksville, and Ocean View areas where existing homes were dependent on individual septic systems. Over 279-tons of nitrogen and 79-tons of phosphorus, that would have gone directly into the groundwater and into the inland bays each year, can now be treated at the county's state-of-the-art South Coastal treatment facility. The developers also constructed over three-miles of sewer force main and gravity sewer, at the same time that Sussex County was upgrading a portion of the South Coastal plant, to increase the capacity to accept additional wastewater. The South Coastal facility was recently recognized by EPA's regional environmental division with an Excellence Award for outstanding operation and maintenance of the plant. Best of all, it didn't cost the taxpayers of Sussex County a nickel. All of the costs for the system design and construction were paid by private developers and were turned over to the county as part of its sewer infrastructure. In an age of cost overruns and delays, a construction project that comes in on-time and under-budget is rare, indeed. Developers involved in the project were Dove Barrington LLC (Beazer Homes and Centex Homes), The Millville Group (Millville by the Sea), and The Estates of Fairway Village LLC. All three will benefit from the new system, which will serve Millville by the Sea, Barrington Park, and Fairway village. Even after these connections are made, there will be enough additional capacity to serve over 9,000 additional homeowners. Every connection made to the system, including those of the three participants, will pay a sewer availability charge to the county. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Construction News :: home page |