Earlier this year, while doing a storm water upgrade in the old Decatur neighborhood, workers discovered a crumbling sanitary line, likely a century old, which was collapsing into the new trench being built.
DeKalb County eventually replaced the old sewer pipes parallel to Decatur’s storm water pipes. According to Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon the cost was over $1 million paid entirely by the county.
But that left over $500,000 in repairs for the city due to the extensive excavation leading to damaged streets and sidewalks.
Decatur is wrapping up its downtown storm water project—the work should be done by July 1—which dates to 2006. This last phase, which started last year, includes replacing the old ductile cast iron pipes with new ones of reinforced concrete along Trinity Place, Howard Avenue, North Candler Street and Barry Street.
The original project budget is $1,725,000. The proposed project budget is $2,275,000, an increase of $550,000.
According to Saxon, a third of that increase goes towards replacing the poor soil with gravel, another third towards reconstruction of East Howard and Trinity and a final third towards rebuilding the curbing and sidewalks.
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