The Bird Creek Interceptor Project, with a $14.4 million price tag, is one of the largest capital improvement undertakings in Temple history, City Manager David Blackburn said. Construction should begin late next year, and finish in 2014.
Workers will replace or repair about five miles of pipe altogether, beginning at Sammons Park Golf Course, snaking underneath Interstate 35, and terminating at a treatment plant just south of Lions Park.
All told, 127 commercial and residential properties will either be directly or indirectly affected.
Some work will cause minor inconveniences such as dirt and noise and neighborhood detours. Homeowners in the area between Southwest HK Dodgen Loop and Lions Park will lose some trees and have their backyards temporarily dug up.
Workers will have to squeeze the new line between back porches and back fences at some of those locations. The old pipe will be back filled and buried in locations where that process is most practical.
Drew Hardin, projects manager for Jacobs Engineering Group who will perform the work, said a project like this would be disruptive, no matter how you look at it. In some cases, mature trees will be removed.
This week, the city is sending out notification letters to the 127 property owners whom the project will have a direct, or indirect, impact.
The city plans to soon meet personally with 37 property owners who will face such things as a permanent easement running through their property. Neighborhood meetings will also be scheduled, either in December or January.
The city will also notify property owners with door hangers regarding workers mapping the existing line by locating manholes. That process could begin this month.
"We're very sensitive to our effect on neighborhoods as we do this project. That's why we're trying to go through these kind of things in what might seem like excruciating detail, but it makes the project easier in the end," public works engineer Bruce Butscher said. "This is a very difficult project to do for a myriad of reasons. We would like to make sure that our citizens understand what we're doing. We are trying to make sure that we do this with as little disruption of everybody's lives as possible, but there are going to be some disruptions."
City Manager David Blackburn said the 50-year-old line is proportionally one of the worst in the city for leaks and infiltration problems. Temple City Council approved the project in December 2008.
