From Mayor Infurna’s Log
Posted on: Thursday, October 18, 2018
MELROSE- Starting on October 22, 2018, as part of our Sewer Rehabilitation Project, the City of Melrose’s Public Works Department, through its contractor Unified Contracting will begin performing a sewer repair on the stretch of Howard Street, between Hesseltine Avenue and Nelson Road/Ruggles Street. The purpose of this work is to repair the areas of the sewer system that were found to be in need during our infiltration and inflow (I/I) investigations, in an effort to prevent infiltration from entering into the pipes. Infiltration is clean water from below the ground (known as groundwater) that enters the sewer system through defective sewer pipes and structures. This “clean” water takes up space or capacity in a pipe that would normally be available for wastewater. It can cause the pipe and its service connections to back-up and potentially overflow during extreme wet weather conditions, and it costs the City’s sewer ratepayers money to send to the MWRA sewer system for conveyance and treatment.
This work will begin Monday, October 22, with the contractor mobilizing equipment on Friday, October 19 and prep work beginning Saturday, October 20. Work is expected to be completed in a minimum of 5 days but may continue into Saturday and possibly the following week. Unified Contracting will start their work at 7:00 am and may continue past 5:00 pm, however this stretch of Howard Street will be closed for the duration of the repair. This means there will be no public access to this stretch until the repair is complete (a minimum of 5 days starting Monday, October 22). Emergency vehicles will still have access to all roads for the duration of the work. In addition, the residential areas around the work area will be open to abutters only. Included in this notice is a map with the intended detour route around the road closure. Expect traffic on this detour route to be heavy during peak commuter hours.
