The Perry City Council made its first payment Monday on the 16th Street sanitary sewer project that with repeated delays in construction now has a provisional completion date in June.
The city’s engineering consultant, Matt Ferrier of Bolton and Menk, originally predicted a mid-November finish, but work on the project did not begin until Christmastime.
When completed, the new line will run southward from Iowa Highway 141 along 16th Street/K Avenue and bring sanitary sewer service to two properties recently annexed by the city and to four others, including the Dallas County Conservation Board’s Forest Park Museum, that lie outside the city limits.
The Perry City Council awarded the $457,255 construction contract in October to EJM Pipe Services Inc. of Lino Lakes, Minn. Monday’s payment of $53,181.95 includes excavation of the 35-foot-deep manhole just south of the bypass, which Ferrier said brought forth some surprises.
“With the hole, we go down and we find all sorts of fun things,” he told the council Monday. “A couple of the things we did come across are the connection of the manhole at 141. There were pipes that we came across that we weren’t anticipating them being there and then as we got to the bottom of the manhole structure itself, there were quite a few issues in the structure of the manhole.”
Ferrier said the deep structure “actually had pipes coming into the top that were dropping the sewage to the bottom, which is not a very typical thing that we would have seen.” He said the unusual flow also undermined the integrity of the manhole structure itself and “corroded so much the stairs and the steps that we can’t use them anymore.”
Access to the hole has been dangerous as a consequence, he said.
“We’ve only had one guy go down there,” Ferrier said. “He actually went down there with a camera so we could see the condition of the manhole.” He called it “a pretty dangerous situation, but it’s something that should be a good product when they’re done.”
The council discussed the deep hole, with member Dean Berkland challenging his fellow councilors by asking, “Any of you guys want to go out and drop down in there?”
“I’ll come watch you drop down,” replied Council member Chuck Schott, as laughter rippled around the chamber.
Council member Barb Wolling asked the city engineer, “You’ve been down in there, right, Matt?”
“I just look at the camera,” Ferrier replied, amid the general laughter.
“We do advise that you wear a raincoat,” interjected Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson, bringing another burst of merriment.
Ferrier said EJM Pipe Services has agreed, in lieu of liquidated damages due as a result of delays, “to make repairs to the 35-foot-deep manhole for us and also bore the sanitary sewer service for us at no additional cost to the city.”
The project calls for the sanitary sewer line to be extended as far south as the property at 14711 K Ave., a house owned by Bob and Carol Bender, according to Dallas County records.
“One thing we did actually ask, as we get the deep work done,” Ferrier said, “and as we get close to County Conservation, we’re going to stop short of them just because we are getting to the point where it’s tough to be putting driveways and those kinds of things back. I would prefer not to rip their driveway out in February and March and try to keep access.”
He said laying the final stretch of sewer pipe, from Forest Park southward to the Bender residence, will be put off until June.
“They’re going to wait and come back in June to finish the remainder of the project,” Ferrier said, “so we can put some concrete back down, and it will cure out quicker, and we can move people in and out of there quicker. I suspect we’ll see them working about another week or 10 days, and then they’ll likely be pulling their equipment out at that point, and we’ll stop the calendar on the project at that point.”
Ferrier reflected on the engineering of a sewer line so deep at one end and shallow at the other.
“It’s amazing that you can start at 35 feet at one end and get four foot deep at the other,” he said. “Essentially, we set it up so if at some point in the future that ever develops down there, there’ll be a lift station right into that area.”
When the sewer-borne chuckles died away, a roll call vote was taken, and the pay request was unanimously approved.
