Planning For Berlin Lift Station Replacement Underway

BERLIN– Plans to replace the Broad Street lift station are underway in Berlin.

Town staff told officials this week the request for proposals (RFP) regarding the replacement of the Broad Street lift station was being drafted and a survey of the property was in the works.

“We have to get the survey done of the property first so we know what we have to work with before we do the design and the build,” said Jamey Latchum, the town’s director of water resources.

This spring, the Berlin Town Council decided to $1 million of the town’s federal COVID relief funding to replace the decades-old lift station on Broad Street. The lift station, which pumps wastewater from that neighborhood over to West Street, from where it can be sent to the town’s treatment plant, was built around 1940 and hasn’t received extensive work since the 1970s. Latchum said this spring something catastrophic could happen to it at any time. If the pump fails, the town will have to rent a pump and haul wastewater to the treatment plant, a process with significant costs.

Councilman Jack Orris asked for an update on the replacement project this week. Latchum said the necessary site survey should be done within a couple weeks. While crews have been busy with other projects in town, those are wrapping up soon.

“Once they get some of that stuff caught up we’ll be pushing hard on Broad Street,” he said.

Councilman Jay Knerr asked if there was a plan in place in case of a failure at the lift station.

Latchum said while there was no formal procedure he planned to rent a pump and then haul the wastewater to the plant. While people have objected to pumps in the past because of the noise they create, he said technology had improved in recent years.

“We talk louder than what they sound,” he said. “We could put one of them there for the short-term.”

Latchum believes the tricky part of the replacement project will be the design of the station’s wet well, as that will have to be built on site.

“The wet well’s going to have to be redesigned because it’s a 1940 construction,” he said. “We’re going to try to build a new one in front of the old one is what our plans are.”

He cautioned however that once construction did begin there would be lane closures and congestion on Broad Street.

“There’s probably going to be some lane closures and pickups in the road,” he said. “But I don’t know what else to do. We don’t own much property down there to park stuff.”

Officials noted that much of the infrastructure in Berlin was aging and would simply have to be replaced in the coming years, something all towns had to deal with at one point or another.

“Berlin is not unique,” Town Administrator Mary Bohlen said.

About The Author: Charlene Sharpe

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Charlene Sharpe has been with The Dispatch since 2014. A graduate of Stephen Decatur High School and the University of Richmond, she spent seven years with the Delmarva Media Group before joining the team at The Dispatch.