Union-Rome Sewer District users will soon see more improvements to the system’s capacity, meaning a boost in new subdivision development.

Tuesday, June 12, 2001

Union-Rome Sewer District users will soon see more improvements to the system’s capacity, meaning a boost in new subdivision development.

County commissioners approved a more than $269,000 engineering contract May 31 on the DeMaria Street Force Main Replacement Project.

The engineering firm of Finkbeiner, Pettis and Strout of Hamilton – which has worked in Lawrence County before – received the contract, said Doug Cade, director of special projects for the Ironton-Lawrence County CAO.

Union-Rome Sewer Districts is supplying a 10 percent monetary match on the project.

The project calls for upgrade replacement of the main sewer line that comes past DeMaria Street in Rome Township. It will switch to a 16-inch main line.

Officials have sought public funding for the project for some time, trying to alleviate the problems the currently smaller line has had with its capacity to transport sewage to the treatment plant, Cade said.

Replacing the line with a larger one will add capacity, as well as keep environmental officials from preventing taps into Union-Rome’s line – which, in the long run, means a boost to new subdivision development in that fast growing area, he said.

The DeMaria Street project is part of a future improvements package recommended in recent years by the district, which began studies because of increased concern over capacity and population growth issues that arose in 1997.

Upgrading the Gardner Lane Sewer from a 15-inch to a 24-inch line, cracking down on drain pipe and other surface water connections to the district’s lines, pump station work and yearly capital expenditures have been in project lists since.

A consultant also recommended several years ago that the design of a new treatment facility should begin in 2007, with its construction coming in 2012.