The Orange County Sanitation District will start construction in a few weeks on the first phase of five-year sewer rehabilitation project in Newport Beach.
Crews will start replacing pipeline along Dover Drive in early May, according to OCSD authorities. The 15-month Dover Drive portion of sanitation district’s Newport Beach Program will construct a major trunk sewer along the street, between Irvine Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, and should be finished by July 2014.
The entire May 2013 to May 2018 Newport Beach Program consists of five construction projects, starting with Dover Drive, and includes work on the Balboa Trunk, Newport Force Main, District 6 Trunk Sewer Relief, and Southwest Costa Mesa Trunk.
At the city council’s Feb. 26 study session, Nick Kanetis, OCSD Director of Engineering, gave a presentation about the upcoming projects.
He also spoke about a sixth project, the Santa Ana River Levee Repairs/Bitter Point FM Rehabilitation in Huntington Beach.
All the projects, not including the levee repairs, have a price tag of $90,792,000, according to OCSD spokeswoman Jennifer Cabral. It’s an investment in the city’s infrastructure, Kanetis said.
Sewer fees on the property tax bill collected from OCSD rate payers have paid and are paying for these projects, Cabral wrote in an email.
The board of directors also recently approved a rate increase of 4.8 percent this year and 2.4 percent annually for the next four years.
The work is primarily replacement and rehabilitation of pipeline that has “deteriorated beyond their useful life, no longer meet their hydraulic demands, and risk failure,” Kanetis said.
The Dover Drive Trunk sewer runs between Irvine Blvd. and Pacific Coast Highway and is in poor condition,“ Cabral wrote. “The existing sewer pipeline is too small to handle the wastewater flow and must therefore be replaced with a larger pipeline.”
The current 7,300 feet of 15 to 21 inch pipeline does not have the “hydraulic capacity to handle the wastewater flows” and will be replaced with the larger 24-inch pipeline.
The new pipeline is expected to last about 50 years, Cabral added.
A city waterline will also be relocated to help sewer construction and eliminate the need for a secondary project in the area at a later date.
“We’ll have some periods of congestion on Dover Drive…There will be some inconvenience,” said Dave Webb, the city’s public works director, but it’s a moving project and while “it may be next to your house for a bit, it will move down the road (as the project progresses).”
Residents should expect noise similar to medium size excavators, which may cause vibrations.
There will be some street closures and traffic impacts. Some areas will be restricted to emergency vehicle and residents only. Detours will be provided.
Crews will be working Monday through Friday, and some Saturdays, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“Construction at the Dover Drive and Westcliff Drive intersection will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to accelerate this work,” according to Cabral.
The southbound lanes at this intersection will be completely closed for no more than 10 working days at some point during construction, she added, while northbound traffic will be open for local access only.
To minimize public disruption, work at the Coast Highway and Dover intersection will be performed at night (9 p.m. to 6 a.m.) before Memorial Day and after Labor Day.
“Traffic along PCH is heavy all year long, but even more so during the summer months because of tourism, access to beaches, etc.,” Cabral explained.
Between June 24 and Aug. 26, while students are out of school for summer at Mariners Elementary School, Dover Drive will be fully closed between Irvine Avenue and Mariners Drive.
There will be advanced notice for any closures, Cabral said.
The next Newport Beach sanitation project will start later this year.
About eight months of construction on Balboa Trunk, along Newport and Balboa boulevards, between A Street and Finley Avenue, will begin in September of 2013.
Newport Force Main project runs along Coast Highway, stretching between Dover Drive and 61st Street, beginning in Fall 2014.
The District 6 Trunk runs from Pomona Avenue in Costa Mesa to Newport Boulevard near Coast Highway, work will start in Spring 2015.
Scheduled to start in Spring 2016, the Southwest Coast Mesa Trunk project involves “looking into the design and construction of a new gravity trunk sewer along West 19th Street, across a wetland marsh area east of the Santa Ana River, and connect to (OCSD) Huntington Beach Wastewater Treatment Facility,” the sanitation district‘s website explains.
During the February council meeting, Mayor Keith Curry also commented on the projects. The construction will cause an inconvenience, he said, but not doing this work would cause even bigger inconveniences.
The infrastructure needs to continue to “work and function (in order to) serve our community,” Curry said. “We’re excited about the improvements that are going to happen in Newport Beach.”
The Orange County Sanitation District will hold two public discussions regarding the projects. May 9 at 7 p.m. and May 11 at 10 a.m., both at Mariners Library, 1300 Irvine Ave.
The OC Sanitation District project manager, construction outreach team and the contractor are all expected to attend the meetings.
For more information, visit ocsewers.com, call the construction hotline at (714) 378-2965 or email constructionhotline@ocsd.com.
