CSO work continues

Date: 11/3/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



CHICOPEE -- The next phase of the city's on-going renovation of its sewer system stated officially on Friday with the groundbreaking of the combined sewer overflow project in the area of McKinstry Avenue and Lorraine Street.

With crews beginning to dig trenches along McKinstry Avenue in the background, Mayor Michael Bissonnette and Superintendent of the Department of Public Works Stan Kulig and others tossed the shovels of ceremonial earth.

The project will not only prevent about three million gallons of sewage from entering the Connecticut River, but also help alleviate some of the flooding problems that have plagued the neighborhood, according to Bissonnette and City Council John Vieau.

Bissonnette said that a reconstruction of the roads in the area had created conditions that allowed flooding after heavy rains by not having adequate storm water drainage. The mayor credited Vieau for advocating the project be undertaken ahead of the original schedule.

Vieau recalled going into home in the area and seeing basements fill up with the water.

The project should be completed lat next year and Kulig said the residents would be inconvenienced with parts of McKinstry Avenue closed to through traffic. He predicted that work on side streets should "go quickly."

The mayor asked the neighborhood be patient while the new sewer lines are installed. The installation of about 6,750 feet of storm drain, 2,750 of water line relocated, a new sanitary sewer service to the Stefanik School as well as the restoration of pavement and grassy areas are all part of this phase.

Bissonnette said the project costs $3 million and was paid for entirely by federal stimulus funds. He added the next parts of the CSO project -- Chicopee Falls and the upper Granby Road areas -- will go out to bid shortly.

So far, the city has received between $13 and $14 million in federal stimulus funding, the mayor said.

Bissonnette said the project reflects what government should do: "Fix a neighborhood that asked for it."