ASHLAND — The City of Ashland will focus on three “urgent” sewer line projects in the coming days, costing the city approximately $204,000.
Mayor Matt Miller said the area’s high-intensity, short-duration rains are exacerbating issues with outdated sewer infrastructure.
“The more we receive those types of rains and that amount of water getting into our Town Creek and getting into our system as fast as it does, it’s starting to cause erosion in key areas around the city,” Miller said.
One of those key areas includes a section of North Davis Road. Miller said a 21-inch trunk line’s joints have deteriorated to the point where water is leaking and causing erosion around the pipe. The mayor said the damage is compromising the stability and structure of the road.
Council hired Driven Excavating, of Bloomville, Ohio, for $45,000 to fix that issue. Miller said work is slated to begin as soon as possible and the construction on that road — near Calvary Baptist Church — will lead to closures.
The second project involves a wooded area near Oak Hill Circle and the Ashland Cemetery. It was the same location the city installed gabion baskets to prevent further erosion about eight months ago, Miller said.
A gabion basket is a woven wire mesh filled with stones and used for various purposes such as stream bank protection and an alternative for retaining walls.
The $110,000 price tag on the project will include hiring an engineering firm to figure out a long-term solution to relocating exposed sewer line.
“The sides of the creek are starting to fall in on the sewer line,” Miller said. “And we cannot allow that to happen because it could cause obvious issues if it continues in that area.”
The third project involves installing gabion baskets along a creek bank that is eroding near Stone Ridge Drive.
Miller said the project will cost $49,000. He said the city installed concrete blocks used as a retaining wall several years ago but that they have collapsed.
The three projects are the latest in a series of work the city anticipates in coming years as it ramps up efforts to update outdated infrastructure, both seen and unseen.
“We’ve talked a lot about the fact that we want to begin focusing on updating our infrastructure that runs all across the city but remains unseen in most instances because it’s underground,” Miller said earlier this month.
Ashland City Council recently hired a firm for more than $200,000 to study its water treatment plant and expects potential projects from that study to cost millions of dollars.
