Pump House Problems Delay Sewer Interceptor Construction

County residents watching construction of the north Spokane sewer interceptor will have to wait until January before water starts flowing through the system.

Spokane County engineers say construction of the lines that will serve about 10,000 residents will be finished this fall.

But delays are slowing work on two key pump houses needed to deliver service to homes along Dartford Road, the Whitworth College area, Cincinnati Drive, Little Spokane Drive and U.S. Highway 395.

The pump houses will be built in the Dartford Road and Whitworth areas, said County Engineer Dean Fowler. Neither problem is major but the pump houses won’t be fully operational until January, he noted.

The Dartford Road project has been delayed because its original site conflicted with shoreline restrictions.

The Whitworth area pump house project on Whitehorse Road has run into excessive water in its well, Fowler said. “We found more water at the base of the well than we anticipated,” he added.

Those problems will keep the pump houses incomplete until the end of the year, predicted Fowler.

The entire $9.5 million construction project hit another unexpected hitch two months ago when a cave-in briefly halted work near Regina Road and U.S. 395.

Construction worker Virgil Rose was buried briefly in the May 4 cave-in but survived.

Fowler said that accident had little impact. “That was only one of five different contracts going on throughout this project,” he said.

The sewer interceptor will create about five total miles of new lines in the county. The project will remove septic systems from above the north Spokane aquifer and along the Little Spokane River.

Spokane County will provide about $7 million of the construction cost. The other $2.5 million is from a state economic development loan.

, DataTimes