Pardon us if this story sounds too familiar.
Water Street will soon be dug up for the third time since 2023, with traffic detoured through early spring. That’s because a contractor needs to repair a relatively new sewer line that has settled, which could cause waste to back up.
Northern Construction is expected to start the work on Dec. 1, taking over part of the parking lot behind Memorial Hall for a staging area and limiting access to the stretch of Water Street from the rotary at the Visitor Center to Chilton Street to one lane.
“We know this will be an inconvenience and we are sorry about that. But we have to do it,” William Coyle, director of the Department of Public Works, told the Select Board Tuesday night.
The seemingly never-ending saga of the sewer line flows from the need to replace an aging quarter-mile section of 30-inch sewer pipe installed in 1969 that runs under the edge of the harbor adjacent to Water Street. Town officials were concerned that a break in the old line would be an environmental disaster for the waterfront.
Coyle reiterated to the board that a portion of the new sewer line installed in 2023 and 2024 has settled, creating a dip in the pipe and an upward pitch for a section of the line. That’s not good for a system that depends on gravity to keep waste flowing downhill.
“Because of that, it will reduce the capacity of the line, and we’ll have a problem with solids building up in that section,” Coyle said.
The town ordered Northern Construction to fix the problem in 2024, and work was expected to start this past February. But the contractor and the town couldn’t reach agreement over how – and even if – the repairs should be done.
Northern Construction told the town the settlement was minor. It said repairs were not necessary and could be counterproductive, causing more settlement and potential property damage. Instead, the company suggests periodic maintenance of the line, to remove solids that build up in the settled area. That would be enough to keep the system operating properly, it said.
The town rejected the maintenance approach, because cleaning the line twice a year won’t fix the underlying problem, Coyle said. Beyond the cleaning costs, allowing solids to build-up reduces the diameter of the pipe, and thereby limits the capacity of the line, he said.
The dispute delayed repairs to the point where it was too late to start without disrupting the 2025 tourist season. Nevertheless, Coyle said, the town remained firm in its position that the work had to be done, and during a recent meeting with the Northern Construction team, the contractor agreed to do the work this fall. “They know they have to do it,” he said.
The company told the town may take until June 6, 2026, to finish the repairs, but Coyle told the Select Board that he’s “hopeful it will be done much sooner than June.”
Work first began on the sewer project in December 2022 and was supposed to be finished by the end of June 2023. But in March 2023, during the first phase of excavation, groundwater problems, shifting soils, and damage to the street, sidewalks, and five buildings on Water and Chilton streets forced a shutdown of the project.
One building was damaged so badly that it had to be razed. The owners of the affected buildings are suing both the town and Northern Construction, seeking more than $5 million in damages. That litigation is ongoing.
It is that first section of pipe, from the rotary near the Visitor Center along Water Street just past Mamma Mia’s restaurant, that has settled.
Throughout the starts and stops of the troubled project, Northern Construction claimed the original cost of the project had doubled to $9 million. The town ultimately struck a deal with the company, agreeing to pay an additional $2 million above the original $4.5 million price tag.
The repair costs will be covered by $1.6 million the town has held back from Northern Construction, pending the post-construction inspection period, specifically in the event of issues like the settlement.
“We are not going to accept a defective project,” Town Manager Derek Brindisi told the board.
Michael Cohen can be reached at michael@plymouthindependent.org.