Highway 16 near I-85 getting sewerage service
By Sarah Fay Campbell
sarah@newnan.com
Work has begun on the project to bring sewer service to the Hwy. 16 area near Interstate 85 south of Newnan.
Crews from the Coweta County Water and Sewerage Authority started work on Monday, said Ellis Cadenhead, general manager.
The line will connect to the Shenandoah Wastewater Treatment Plant on Poplar Road.
Though the current plan is to terminate the sewer line near the intersection with East Gordon Road, extending it on to U.S. 29 will be a fairly simple project.
Most of the work is being done by authority crews, which will save money.
The entire project will cost approximately $600,000. Completion is expected in six months.
The sewer line will run close to the right-of-way for the proposed extension of the Hwy. 34 Bypass, which will intersect with Hwy. 16.
“It won’t be on the right-of-way, but it will be very close,” Cadenhead said. “We have easements all the way through there.”
The authority will be contracting for some of the major clearing needed for the project.
Rusty Russell, assistant to the general manager, said at Wednesday’s meeting of the authority he was getting prices from various companies for the clearing.
In other meeting business:
• Water authority crews installed more new meters in March than in any month since 2007, said Construction Director Rick Jones.
There were 62 new meters, Jones said. That’s up from 35 in February.
The new meters included 19 digs, which is a completely new meter, and 25 drops, which is installing a meter where the meter box previously existed — such as in a subdivision where infrastructure was previously installed on lots. The rest were irrigation meters.
“That’s a good sign,” said authority Chairman Neal Shepard.
“We hope it is a sign of things to come,” Cadenhead said after the meeting. The dramatic increase in new meters hopefully means “that the economy is beginning to see some turnaround,” he said.
• The authority has purchased a dump trailer to help save money at the wastewater plant.
The pressed sludge from the sewer treatment process is taken to a landfill in Griffin. Currently, the authority pays $250 for each load of sludge to be taken to the landfill.
With the new dump trailer, authority employees can deliver the sludge to the landfill. In addition, the new trailer holds 20 tons; the container the authority was using only holds 12.
Cadenhead said the estimate is that the trailer will pay for itself in seven months.
Because it was such a good deal, the authority bought a second trailer for the construction crew. It will mainly be used for gravel, Cadenhead said. It should cut the number of loads of gravel in half and “cut our fuel costs dramatically,” Cadenhead said.
• A bond validation hearing on new bonds to be issued by the authority is set for May 10. The bond closing should be the week of May 14, said authority counsel Melissa Griffis. “So everything is moving right along,” she said.
The authority intends to issue $36.8 million in bonds, which will be used to pay off older bonds that have a higher interest rate.
