MORGANTOWN — Along with technical, engineering-driven explanations, there were some pretty frank assessments offered Thursday as two dozen or so members of the public turned up in the Wiles Hill Community Center gym to learn about the Morgantown Utility Board’s forthcoming Upper Popenoe Run stream and sewer project.
Number one, the current situation is as about as bad as it gets according to Eric Coberly of E.L. Robinson Engineering.
There’s a 60-plus-year-old, broken down clay sewer line hugged right up against a natural stream running through residential neighborhoods.
“This is the worst of the worst type of condition of a clay line. You look at the age and the location next to a stream. That’s the worst of the worst.”
Number two, fixing it is going to be a pain, particularly for some of the people living in those residential neighborhoods.
MUB General Manager Mike McNulty said that before all is said and done, some of the people sitting in that gym Thursday evening, and/or their neighbors, may not be overly pleased with him.
Hopefully, he added, that’s temporary.
“We’re all going to be partners in this. We’ll get to know each other very well,” McNulty said. “It’s going to be ugly … There’s going to be times that you’ll be upset because of the way your property looks. But every job we’ve been on we’ve always managed to work through it, get the restoration done, get the grass growing. It will come back. It just takes a little time.”
E.L. Robinson is currently designing the project, which will begin on the stadium parking lot side of Willowdale Road and run between Richland Avenue and Randolph Road to Hoffman Avenue, where it bends and runs behind the homes on Amherst Road to Stewart Street, near Shorty Anderson’s Auto Service.
The vast majority of that stretch will actually see two projects: the installation of a new, buried PVC sewer line and the restoration of the stream.
AllStar Ecology owner Ryan Ward said the stream will be designed as a two-stage channel, meaning mini floodplains will be cleared on either side of the main channel in order to handle extra capacity. He also noted features like stepped pools will be used to dissipate energy and reduce erosion.
The overall project will also include new sewer and stormwater infrastructure along a spur off that main trunk in the area of Bradley Street.
As for a timeline, the goal is to begin a six-month construction phase sometime this fall.
“So hopefully, start in the fall, get the bulk of the work underway and finish up in the spring with all the various plantings in the spring of 2024,” Coberly said.
The total project cost has yet to be determined. The city of Morgantown and Monongalia County have each allocated $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars for the work.
