11th Street to see first open trench excavations

By Kyle Troutman ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com

The city of Cassville’s overhaul of its sanitary sewer system is scheduled to start this week, beginning with open trench excavations on 11th Street.

David Brock, Cassville public works director, said excavations are expected to begin the week of April 10, beginning at 11th and Fair streets, continuing northwest on 11th Street to Main Street (Business Highway 37). As of Thursday morning, the street was still clear.

“This portion of the project consists of burying new pipe and manholes at depths of around 9.5 feet,” Brock said. “All excavation will occur within the driving surface of 11th Street, but there will be several pieces of heavy equipment working to remove and place materials all within a relatively small area. To facilitate construction, block lengths of 11th Street will be closed to through traffic — beginning with the section between Fair and Harold.”

Brock said the contractor will try to keep access open for local traffic, but there will likely be times when equipment or materials will block individual driveways. 

“If residents need to come or go, they can simply inform someone on the construction crew, a city staff member or the project inspector, and they will get you in or out as soon as possible. 

“This portion of the project may be very disruptive in the immediate area of the excavations; if anyone has questions or concerns issues, please let us know.”

Brock said work on the trenchless rehabilitation is also expected to start this week, with cleaning and CCTV Inspections of the sewer pipe that will be relined. 

“This work should cause no more than minor disruptions to drivers with short isolated lane closures,” he said. 

Brock said the project is being undertaken to address infrastructure that has exceeded its useful life and is allowing excess stormwater into the sewer system. 

“These high flows often overwhelm the collection system resulting in unwanted discharges,” he said. “Avoiding the expense of processing high flows at the treatment plant will help keep user rates as low as possible. In the long run, it is cheaper to fix the problem than treat the symptoms.”

The target area for all improvements is in the floodplain, where groundwater tables are the highest. Approximately 80 percent of the improvements will be traditional open trench construction, and the remainder will use a trenchless restoration process using cured-in-place pipe and manhole relining.

The complete project, at $5 million, will replace two miles of pipe and repair three miles of pipe, accounting for more than 15 percent of the system.

A full list of open trench repairs scheduled includes:

Areas set to receive open trench repairs include:

• County Farm Road, from 11th Street to about 900 West 10th Street

• 11th Street from Main to Fair streets

• 10th Street from Harold to Fair streets, plus an area from 10th Street to the corner of Eighth and Mill streets

• Fair Street from 10th Street to 12th Street, cutting behind the building in the 1200 block of Fair Street to 13th Street and Park Avenue

• Park Avenue from 13th Street to Meadowbrook Drive

• Meadowbrook Drive from Park Avenue to Partridge Drive

• Partridge Drive from Meadowbrook Drive to the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant

The project is being engineered by Allgeier, Martin and Associates. Full plans for the project may be viewed at https://files4.revize.com/cassvillemo/Downloadable%20Docs/2022-04-08%20RESEALED%20SET.pdf.

People may contact City Hall at 847-4441 for more information or to sign up for project announcements and updates via email.