TERRE HAUTE —
The City of Terre Haute is progressing with the $34 million first phase of its plan to dramatically reduce overflows of combined stormwater and sewage into the Wabash River.
The Terre Haute Board of Sanitary Commissioners, in a special meeting Tuesday morning in City Hall, voted to start negotiations with selected companies to undertake two of the first big projects in “phase one,” including a controversial stormwater “lagoon” near Indiana 63 and Interstate 70.
The five-person board selected Commonwealth Engineers Inc. to handle the lagoon project. However, contract details have not been worked out and the board only granted city officials permission to begin negotiating with Commonwealth, which has offices in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Evansville. If terms cannot be agreed, the city will negotiate with the second company on the board’s ranking, city officials said.
The lagoon project is expected to cost about $6 million and is just one piece in a 20-year, $120-million plan to cut overflows of combined stormwater and sewage into the Wabash. Once completed, the lagoon will temporarily store stormwater and sewage that flows directly into the river during a significant rain.
Actual work on the lagoon is not expected to begin until August 2013, said an official with Hannum, Wagle & Cline Engineering of Terre Haute, which is overseeing the entire Long Term Control Plan, which received approval from state and federal environmental officials last summer.
The lagoon has faced opposition from members of the Terre Haute “Riverscape” group, who fear it will have a foul odor. City officials have said the lagoon will have nearly no odor.
• Also Tuesday, the board selected R.W. Armstrong, an Indianapolis-based engineering and consulting firm, and Malcomb Prinie, a water management consulting firm, to handle the city’s “floatable controls” structures for the Long Term Control Plan.
One of the structures, which will be about as large as a two-car garage, will be placed near the Terre Haute Fire Department maintenance facility on North First Street, said Chuck Ennis, city engineer. A second structure of the same size will be behind a wrecking yard on Prairieton Road near Idaho Street, he said.
Floatable control structures extend deep into the ground to capture objects floating in a stormwater overflow, such as plastic bottles or aluminum cans. At present, when significant rainfalls take place, combined stormwater and sewage drains into the Wabash River.
The first phase of the Long Term Control Plan will also involve significant sewer repair and reinforcement work, Ennis said.
• Also Tuesday, the board voted to award a $392,000 contract to S.T. Construction to repair drainage problems around North Sixth Street and Maple Avenue.
Reporter Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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