There are 410 miles of pipes under Kent County. And they're too old to keep working.

The News Journal

These could be the signs of the time when a $6 million sewer pipe repair project takes place in the spring on 2.8 miles of U.S. 13 in Dover. The Kent County project calls for bigger sewer pipes in the median along the highway to be slip-lined with smaller, plastic pipe because some of the concrete pipe is deteriorating.

Kent County's aging wastewater infrastructure, blamed for woes of recent year, is about to get a $6 million makeover.

The major project will repair damaged and weakened sewer pipe in the median along 2.8 miles of U.S. 13 in Dover.

The long-promised year-long project is due to start in the spring and is sure to give motorists, students, shoppers, casino-goers and business owners more than a little stress.

The project calls for the older 24-inch concrete sewage pipe to be slip-lined with smaller 18- to 20-inch plastic pipe. The project stretches from West Dennys Road near the Delaware Technical Community College campus to South Garden Lane across from Burlington and Big Lots.

More than 2 1/2 miles of sewer pipe along U.S. 13 in Dover -- like the stack sitting at the Kent County wastewater facility near Milford -- will be slip-lined with a smaller plastic pipe as part of a $6 million project county officials hope to see started in the spring.

Kent County Public Works Director Diana Golt said the same flow will be achieved with the smaller plastic pipe because less friction will be created.

Golt said the project is currently in the design stage and she hopes the final design will be presented and bids sent out no later than October.

The county has been working with the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) at different times throughout the concept stage, Golt said.

The timeline will depend on what DelDOT needs to study lane closures.

"There is still a question of whether there will be a requirement for a traffic impact study," she said.

Because the start of slip-lining is still a few months out, DelDOT has not yet added it to its Kent County list of projects.

Golt said the project also must contend with a requirement by the state not to impact major Dover events such as the two NASCAR races, the Firefly Music Festival, Delaware State University graduation and the start of school, and it would directly affect Towne Point Elementary School.

Kent County and the state are considering the benefits of doing the work at night, which would have less impact on traffic along U.S. 13, Golt said.

Come spring, motorists driving along a 2.8-mile stretch of U.S. 13 from around Delaware Tech to Burlington and Big Lots will likely see similar road signs when Kent County begins a $6 million sewer pipe replacement project.

"There will be a high-level need for coordination," Golt said.

Kent County assistant director of public works Andy Riggi said the goal is to not close northbound and southbound lanes, but the project could result in intermittent turn lane closures.

Riggi said the work will be done in sections. He said the project calls for opening a large excavation area in the middle to feed the pipe to two smaller sites on either side.

"We'll leapfrog down the road," said Riggi, who noted that slip-lining was the most expedient and cost-effective way to make sure proper flow is maintained. "When we string out 1,000-feet of pipe, that might stretch over a turn lane in the process."

A $6 million project projected to begin in the spring to slip-line existing sewer pipe in the median along 2.8 miles of U.S. 13 will affect the turn lanes closest to the median most, Kent County officials say.

Kent County Administrator Michael Petit de Mange said funds could come from sewer operating revenue, state revolving loans or federal loans or a combination of each.

Petit de Mange said that once the project's timeline is set, the county will embark on an outreach program and offer residents an opportunity to give feedback.

"We want good dialogue with business owners and residents to garner input and feedback," he said.

Kent County officials first suspected there was a problem with the sewer pipes along U.S. 13 when in July 2014 a major sewer line break near the Dover Mall and Delaware State University shut down northbound traffic on the major artery for hours.

County crews then looked at the pipe north and south and found it was degraded and damaged, Golt said.

County-wide assessment

The county also will spend $100,000 to assess all pipeline conditions.

The first stage will be an assessment of pipes that are 12 inches and larger. Golt said most of the 177 miles of force main piping and 237 miles of gravity piping in the county's wastewater system date back to the 1970s when the original wastewater facility was built.

"We want to figure out where we are, what we might need to look at, where we want to go and do the first field evaluations," Golt said. "We have to figure out how to deal with the aging infrastructure in Kent County."

The county's public works director cautioned that there is a likelihood that there will be other problems discovered in the assessment. She hopes it will be done by August or September in time to add additional information to the FY 2020 budget.

Other wastewater events in the county have highlighted the need for a closer look at Kent County's wastewater facility and its infrastructure needs.

In February, reports of sewage coming out of a manhole on Leipsic Road led a public works crew to follow the aroma to the City of Dover's Pump Station No. 7. There, they found six pumps submerged in sewage and rendered inoperable.

Temporary pumps provided by Kent County and a New Jersey company helped the City of Dover manage sewage flow when six pumps were rendered inoperable at Pump Station #7.

That problem, which was attributed to extra flow created by Kent County since March 2016 to take the pressure off of its deteriorating sewage pipes, took the city weeks to repair.

Golt said when the city had its problems, the county took back the sewage flow into its pipes. While that hasn't created problems so far, she said there is no way to measure how much is too much.

Dover city manager Donna Mitchell believes the slip-lining work along U.S. 13 and the assessment will help the city, especially considering past Pump Station No. 7 troubles.

"The fact that they won't have sewage going through our pump station will get our flows back to normal," she said. "It will have a positive impact for Dover and Kent County."

A year ago, ongoing discharge of undertreated wastewater from the Kent County wastewater treatment plant into the Murderkill River closed recreational shellfishing in that area.

The problem was quickly contained, but those wanting to take part in recreational shellfishing in the Delaware Bay north of the Mispillion Inlet had to wait 21 days before resuming.

That problem was attributed to a tear in the liner of one of the wastewater facility's two 20-foot deep aeration basins.

A year ago, ongoing discharge of undertreated wastewater from the Kent County wastewater treatment plant into the Murderkill River closed recreational shellfishing in that area. The culprit was a torn liner in one of the facility's two 20-foot deep aeration basins. The problem was fixed at a cost of $1.4 million.

Both liners were replaced at a cost of $400,000 each, with an additional cost of $1 million to remove the old liners and prepare the stone bottom for each replacement liner.

"The basin was a priority project," Golt said. "These projects are not simple and they don't happen overnight."

A $25 million upgrade to the county's wastewater treatment plant in 2016 has added more capacity for a growing Kent County.

Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.

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