By By ROBERT BLANKENSHIP – Managing Editor
The first phase of a drainage project in Brewton is well underway and will continue at three key areas through the month of July, according to city officials.
Currently, contractors are working to clear and lay rock along a drainage system, known as Boggy Branch, which runs between Gordon Lane and Sowell Road. The contractors will continue their work in the areas behind D.W. McMillan Hospital to Pineview Street and on the opposite side of Gordon Lane up to where the city had completed similar work last summer, close to Spring Street.
The work is being done with money provided through a federal grant. However, Brewton Superintendent of Utilities Ray Madden said the jobs must be completed by July 31 in order to receive the funding. Officials estimate that the total cost of the project will be about $450,000. The city was eligible for the funding due to sewer lines being exposed in each of the three areas.
Madden said that so far the project is progressing on schedule.
In addition to the work being done by the contractors on the drainage system, city employees have used this as an opportunity to take care of other jobs. They are clearing the right-of-way along these ditches to help clear the city's sewer lines. Trees and brush located on these right-of-ways are being knocked down and burned with permission of the Brewton Fire Department.
In the process of taking down the trees at the Boggy Branch project, a sewer line was broken. The city is using its own employees and funds to replace about 1,000 feet of sewer main from Sowell Road up to Gordon Lane.
Doing the work themselves will cost the city about $12,000 which includes the cost of a $7,000 laser used to lay the main on grade. In the past, the city has rented the laser at $850 per week.
Madden said the sewage work in the Gordon Lane area should be completed by Wednesday, June 25. The city used a by-pass pump to avoid interrupting service in that area.