Burbank sewer upgrade work expected to start soon

Work is expected to begin in the coming months on upgrades to one of the city’s aging sewer lines under a contract the City Council awarded on Tuesday.

The council unanimously voted to approve the $9.4-million contract with Long Beach-based W.A. Rasic Construction Co. Inc., the lowest bidder on the roughly yearlong project to install a new 24-inch sewer line along Sparks Street and Chandler Boulevard and replace existing pumps at the Beachwood pump station.

An existing 18-inch cement pipe, which runs under Beachwood Drive and Chandler, will be decommissioned and disinfected for future repurposing, such as for use as a conduit for fiber optic cables, said Daniel Rynn, assistant public works director for wastewater systems.

Most sewer lines in the city flow with the aid of gravity, but the new main, like the one it replaces, will carry sewage under pressure from the pump station at Mountain View Park, to the reclamation plant at Lake and Chestnut streets — a distance of about 12,000 feet.

Both the existing pipeline and the pump station were constructed in 1972. The new pipe is expected to address pipeline failures on the Beachwood line in recent years, including in April 2014 and November 2010. It will also improve capacity at the pump station, which is performing nearly 20% below the original capacity it was designed for, according to a staff report.

The report also said the improvements are expected to reduce the costs to Burbank rate-payers for sewage treatment done at Los Angeles’ Hyperion Treatment Plant during pump station down time.

Eleven firms attended a mandatory “job walk” for the project, and five submitted bids, but W.A. Rasic was one of only two to submit responsible, responsive bids, according to the report. The second firm, Stanton-based USS Cal Builders Inc., submitted a $10.4-million proposal.

Bonnie Teaford, the city’s public works director, said now that the contract has been awarded, the preconstruction paperwork, procurement and mobilization for the project can begin and is expected to take several weeks. Actual construction may not begin until December.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” she said, including lots of paperwork and development of a construction schedule, which she said is “always dependent on the weather.”

The schedule is expected to minimize the impacts of the work, she said, adding that “we do our best to be good neighbors to our residents.”

The early construction work may only take place at the park or the reclamation plant, Teaford said. A community meeting will be held to notify residents of the plans and impacts before any work begins on residential streets, and the contractor is obligated to notify residents and business owners before work begins in front of their homes or establishments.

Rynn said that workers are projected to lay about 200 to 300 feet of pipe a day and may spend two or three days in front of a house during the work, which in most places involves excavating a trench, laying the pipe and then back-filling and resurfacing the street. There will be temporary parking restrictions on one side of the street to accommodate the work, he said.

Access to homes, businesses, schools, sports fields and parks is expected to remain open during most of the day and evenings while the work is being done, but there is expected to be increased truck and construction traffic, as well as noise and dust.

At four major intersections — Sparks and Verdugo/Olive avenues; Sparks and Clark Avenue; Sparks and Magnolia Boulevard; and Chandler and Victory Boulevard — crews will dig a vertical hole and drill horizontally under the street, rather than trench across, to minimize traffic impacts.

Councilwoman Emily Gabel-Luddy asked if the project would address “an odor problem” in the area. Rynn said it will improve the odor-control system at the pump station, which is one suspected source of the odors, though the smell may also be coming from a second line along Beachwood, known as the “sludge line,” which is not part of the project.

Residents and businesses with questions or concerns about the project can contact community liaison Barbara Correa through the construction hotline at (800) 283-3870.