Wartrace water plans approved; sewer work ahead

It was good news and bad news at the Wartrace Water Board meeting Monday night.

The good news? The plans to improve the lines on Haley and Lee roads were approved by the state and the bid was officially awarded to Clanton Paving of Shelbyville to begin the work. The only holdup city engineer Robert Stigall said he could foresee was that he was going to have to get a permit to cross a creek so the Wartrace water lines didn't interfere with natural gas lines the Elk River Public Utility District is laying in the same area.

"The money will be here by the time the contractor gets to work," said Stigall, referring to the financing for the project, estimating a start time of mid- to late February.

Town recorder Laura Gentry said she was exploring borrowing options other than the Tennessee Municipal League and comparing rates.

"(The bank) recommends we use it like a credit line," she said, adding that TML wanted them to get all of the money up front, in which case the town would have to pay interest on the total.

"We're still looking into it," she said.

The bad news? The sewer line running under Smartt Street, Sunset Street and part of Fairfield Pike may have to be completely replaced instead of just repaired.

"That's going to mean digging up the main street," said Stigall. Later he added, "We will probably have to move some water lines then, too, because some of them run next to the sewer lines and we can't just leave them dangling."

Since Stigall only got to see the images taken of the troubled lines shortly before the meeting, he couldn't give the board a cost estimate, but he could, and did, give them his recommendation.

"Unfortunately, it looks like a better candidate for replacement," he said.

Besides broken lines and root invasion, he said, the line dips and drops in places.

"It's like a roller coaster and it's trapping water," said Stigall.

If the line had remained relatively straight, he said, it would have been easier to repair. In some places, he told the board, the tree roots were hanging down in the line "like a curtain."

The damaged lines total about 750 feet, said Bryan Smith, manager of the water and sewer department.

Smith told the board that the work along Cortner Mill is progressing well and one stretch of the line has been filled and pressure tested.

"The pressure testing -- no problem," he said. "They've already started installing taps."

Once the water samples come back clean, Smith added, people on that line can go ahead and hook on.

Further construction on that line, part of the line improvement necessary for the upcoming connection to the Tullahoma Utility Board, has been temporarily stalled, he said, "by weather and rocks."