Relocation of Sewer Interceptor Continues on Plymouth’s Water Street

In Plymouth, perhaps it’s not an exaggeration to say that most of Water Street, is a gem of a roadway that hugs the harbor, and is a pathway to the many leisure and business activities that cluster at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, and those that operate on the water itself. 

So the Town Manager’s report at the Select Board meeting this week, that one-way traffic would be extended to Chilton Street during the repositioning of the sewer interceptor, is likely not good news for some.

WATD’s Bobbi Clark files this report:

Construction of the Water Street Sewer Interceptor project began early in December of last year, and Town Manager Derek Brindisi says it’s a very complicated one.

“…we’ve had a number of challenges with this project. We’re actually still in Phase One and hoping to get out of Phase One within the next week or two—with the projected end date of June 1st.”

And this project is necessary because in the late 1960’s, someone decided to bury a sewer interceptor in the harbor. An interceptor carries wastewater to another interceptor or directly to a treatment facility.

Acting DPW Director Sheila Sgarzi:

“The project is to relocate this sewer interceptor pipe that’s currently in the harbor—that we cannot completely access, and rotate it into Water Street. The proposed pipe is a 30-inch diameter PVC pipe—it’s going to be about 20 feet deep, under Water Street.”

And Sgarzi says, the benefit of this is…

“…we’ll have full access to the pipe. We’ll be able to inspect it to make sure there are no problems in the future. Whereas, the pipe, currently in the harbor, we cannot inspect.”

Inspection is important because…

“..for example, with the pipe in the harbor right now, if it were to break—that would be catastrophic—you’d have about 70% of the town’s wastewater just flowing into the harbor. So, we routinely inspect our sewers. We video camera them routinely to make sure they’re functioning remotely. We cannot do that with the pipe in the harbor, with the current configuration of that pipe.” 

The Select Board approved using $4.7 million of ARPA funds for this project.