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Colchester, IL – A major sewer reconstruction project in Colchester is moving along. If everything goes smoothly, it could be finished by the end of this year.
The Colchester City Council agreed to award the project to Laverdiere Construction of Macomb, which came in with the low bid. It will cost the city roughly $726,000 to complete the project.
Mayor Danny Bice says the city is exploring bonding options to help pay for the project, but he hopes all of the cost can be covered by a low interest IEPA loan and other grants.
Bice says the city has been in violation of Environmental Protection Agency standards for more than a year. He says the Coal Street lift station must be replaced.
"The lift stations, when we get good rains and stuff, they can not handle the infiltration," says Bice. "What it does, is it goes out to overflow instead of going into the sanitary sewer."
Bice says many of the city's water mains will also be replaced. Plus, Colchester must repair several highway crossings where the pipes have either partially or completely collapsed. Work on the crossings could cause traffic along 136 through the city to be diverted for possibly several weeks at a time.
Bice says the project could get underway by late April at the earliest. But he says realistically it will probably commence sometime in the summer and go into next year.