Community Corner

Holmes Run Sewer Project Faces Holdups

The new sewer line under the waterway should be completed in May.

The $1.5 million Holmes Run sewer project is scheduled to be completed in May after several delays along the way.

Construction crews have—temporarily—destroyed the creek banks on both sides of Holmes Run near the intersection of Holmes Run Parkway and North Paxton Street. Workers are replacing a sewer line that was destroyed in September 2011 during Tropical Storm Lee, when large flows washed out base material underneath the sewer pipe.

The line belongs to the Fairfax County Department of Wastewater Management. Brendan Schillo, a county wastewater design and construction project engineer, said the storm bent the 36-inch pipe and broke it in half, causing Holmes Run to flow into the sewer system.

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First, it took the city of Alexandria and Fairfax County a couple of months to determine how to fix the problem, Schillo said. Then, the county was forced to undergo an expensive operation to temporarily bypass the flow. Phase one of the project entailed creating a permanent bypass structure, which was completed in April 2012.

The county then moved ahead with designing and bidding out the project, which was awarded to Slippo Construction Co. of Maryland. A holdup came when the construction entrance provided by the county would not work, and crews had to add a new entrance downstream, requiring a monthlong permit process, Schillo said.

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Crews also needed to perform improvements downstream and added imbricated rock, which is cut easily for stacking, and took material downstream to use for the project. Workers currently have a “port-a-dam” in place, with water pipes running through it to keep the excavation area dry, and are installing steel tubes called micropiles drilled into the ground rock to create a stable foundation for a new pipe.

“After we get the micropiles in for our new foundation, we can actually start building a steel structure that holds our pipe,” Schillo said.

After project completion, crews will make landscape improvements, installing tiers for vegetation and planting trees, Schillo said.

“Restoration is always part of our post-construction,” he said.


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