News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Construction crews from Jack Robinson and Sons are carving deep trenches in the streets at the south end of town and laying pipe for Sisters' sewer system.
According to Dick Nored of HGE, Inc., the city's project engineer, Robinson's crews were working at a depth of 12 feet on Locust Street last week.
The deepest trenches go to 18 feet below the street surface. However, most of the sewer trenches are much shallower, only four to five feet deep, Nored said.
"A lot of town is at the minimum depth," Nored said. "Everything drains to the northeast."
The gravity system runs down to Rope Lane at the northeast corner of town, where a pump station will force the effluent up to the treatment and holding ponds currently under construction on Section 9 south of town.
Careful study has gone into making sure the grade is maintained.
"We have aerial topography and we have surveyed every area of town," Nored said.
The construction crews are mindful of safety as they work in the trenches. A steel framework known as a "coffin" is lowered into the trench whenever someone is in it to prevent cave-ins. At 12 to 18 feet in depth, a cave-in would easily bury a man.
Once the pipe is laid, the trenches will be filled in with compacted "three-quarter-minus" gravel. The gravel fill requirement is a high standard, but, Nored noted, "we don't want to pave it, then have the street settle."
However, Nored said, paving will likely be put off till spring.
Another construction firm, James W. Fowler and Company of Dallas, Oregon, was to move in this week to begin work on the north side of town.
Nored said that some of the commercial district could be hooked up and operating this winter. A new contract will be inked in about a month for residential main lines and laterals in the commercial core.
"By the end of the year, we should be pumping sewage," Nored said.
In November, Nored plans to cut still another contract for the residential laterals, which will hook up individual residences to the main lines. That, according to Nored, is the simplest part of the project.
However, because a portion of the work is funded through federal grants, it is subject to Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage rules.
"We're actually going to pay the most for the simplest part," Nored said.
Nored said the work crews plan to bore under Cascade Avenue at night to avoid shutting down the highway.
"We tried to stay off of Cascade as much as possible," Nored said. "The rest of it is block-by-block."
According to Nored, residents and businesses should expect to see crews and equipment on their block for about four days at a time, at least for now.
"Right now, we're at the deepest part," he said. "As it gets shallower, it'll go faster."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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