Water

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

— Finished.

The digging, interrupted traffic flow, torn-up pavement - nearly a year of work along the roadsides of town providing a service that is necessary, but mostly unseen.

The project to upgrade to the city's sewer lines and add a new water supply line is finished.

That is welcome news to Ken Hayes, Pea Ridge water/wasterwater superintendent, who has been overseeing the three-phase project for four years.

"We are almost completed," Hayes said of the projects, which have involved construction crews on the roadsides around town for the past year.

Water out

The sewer lines in town were more than 40 years

old. There are three main trunk lines. The main one - "the long one with all the capacity on it" - was way over capacity, Hayes said.

"It was grossly undersized. It ran all the way from lift station No. 1 all the way back to the treatment plant."

That line was replaced with a larger line that will meet the city's needs.

Sewage flows into the line by gravity from Henry Little Street down to lift station No. 1 at Sugar Creek and Ryan Road, that is pumped up to lift station No. 2 at Ryan Road at the back of Shepherd Hills and then it is all pumped back to man hole in front of Castle Rental. From there it is gravity flow back to the treatment plant.

"All the subdivisions on Lee Town and Weston Street go into this line," Hayes said, adding that includes the golf course and Windmill Estates.

"It was all upsized from a six-inch to a 12-inch," Hayes said, saying a new sewer line was put in south of Maple Glen to the existing lift station. From there, there is a new 15-inch line from Castle Rental to Arkansas Highway 72 south of the elementary school. When the line went under (Hwy.) 72, it was a 24-inch line and by the headworks of the plant, it is a 30-inch line.

NEC Construction provided most of the work, aided by city employees.

"My guys have been jumping through hoops these 11

months. They did a lot of extra work to save money on this project," Hayes said.

"There is 5,300 feet of 12-inch gravity line which will basically serve everything south of (Hwy.) 72 - Maple Glen and any development further towards Bentonville," Hayes said.

Water in

In addition to handling the water leaving the homes and businesses in town, another phase of the project involved the water coming into the homes and businesses.

A new water line was installed along Hwy. 72 to town providing another access to water from Two-Ton Water.

"With the new line and tower, the city of Pea Ridge will now be on two separate pressure planes. The older part of town and the new one - all of Hwy. 72 out It'll Do to Givens. The folks in Givens should have considerably more water pressure," Hayes said.

"We've completed that loop. It feeds back into town on It'll Do and (State Hwy.) 94. This alleviates all the major dead ends. There is a 12-inch line up It'll Do. It will provide good volume and pressure. It will solve issues they were having at the new elementary school," he said.

The half-mile between Hazelton and State Hwy. 72 on It'll Do Road was finished.

"That was a key part of this project. The whole idea wasto get out to Givens and through Blackjack Corner," Hayes said.

Water stored

In addition to the line, a half-million gallon water tank was erected west of town which will provide better water pressure for water customers in town.

"It's designed to give the same pressure that we're picking up at the master meter. It's so high so we can get that 90 psi," Hayes said, explaining the additional pressure allows the city to pump water further, to each boundary of the service area. The two water planes are kept separate.

The new water tower was anticipated to be one-year project but was completed in six months. It was a $1.1 million project.

Several years ago, the state health department "threw up a red flag," Hayes said, warning the city that they were consistently at the 80 percent capacity.

Hayes said several options were considered, but the decision was made to connect on State Hwy. 72 because the city's water service area lies along that path.

"There are 60 people on that line right now who want water," he said, adding that three taps were installed for Jac's Ranch.

"That will open a lot more customers for the Pea Ridge Water Service District, allowing us to repay the project more easily."

The old line coming into town had a lot of leaks on it and was way under capacity, Hayes said. He said the it would take five 8-inch lines to carry the same water capacity as the new 18-inch line.

"We're being able to get water to Pea Ridge five times better than it was. The volume should better throughout town."

"We've been working on this project for two and a half to three years."

The environmental study took a year, obtaining easements took six months and then they waited on receiving the Rural Development loan, which was secured on the water and sewer rates.

The cost of that project was $4.3 million. The payment will be $19,000 per month in addition to the $4,000 per month for the new tower.

"All of this has been driven by growth; we have doubled from 2000 to 2010. The county has projections for the growth right now of 4,600.

"We have 2,250 customers, minus Brush Creek," Hayes said, despite the old city population sign which announces 2,300.

"When I started in '05, we knew we needed new lines."

There was 590,000 gallons of storage. Now, there is 1.1 million gallons of storage.

The state Health Department requires 24 hours of storage.

Area, Pages 9 on 08/12/2009