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Sanitary commissioners hear 2024 maintenance metrics, 2025 engineering projects
Summary
Engineering director Tom Noble reported 2024 maintenance results and outlined 2025 work including sewer replacements on Hudson and Rochester, McGuyard storm cleaning, geofencing for street sweepers and CSO 23 separation work.
Tom Noble, director of engineering for the Sanitary District, told the Board of Sanitary Commissioners on March 5 that the engineering department completed thousands of maintenance tasks in 2024 and is planning several sewer and stormwater projects for 2025.
Noble said the department implemented Cartograph asset-management software and completed 5,850 department-wide tasks last year, including cleaning about 120,000 lineal feet of sanitary sewer and televising 64,610 lineal feet of sanitary sewer. He said street sweepers collected 1,798 tons of road debris in 2024, including 471 tons of leaves.
"We did 74 affidavits last year. 16 of them were issues on MSD side," Noble said, describing how crews are updating lateral mapping and saving video records tied to laterals so the district can track where private sewer lines tie into public mains.
Noble outlined planned and ongoing projects for 2025: cleaning a reportedly never-cleaned storm line on McGuyard (a 36-inch pipe with about 22 inches of debris), replacing sanitary sewer between First and Second in the alley west of Macedonia (250 feet of 8-inch pipe plus 150 feet of new line to serve houses), three new storm inlets near Reserve south of Maguire, about 320 lineal feet of storm replacement on Rochester between 17th and 18th, and a 1,400-lineal-foot, deep sanitary replacement on Hudson (sewer currently about 17 feet deep).
He said the Hudson work is being designed to try to "shallow that up," aiming for 6–7 feet at the start; if the depth would exceed about 9 feet at the beginning the district would consider contracting the work out. Noble also noted plans to replace a damaged section of Amherst prior to paving, add storm infrastructure on Delinda north of McGalliard, and improve storm drainage at Leslie. The department will assist the White Lake Community Council with drainage for a new facility on Centennial East of MLK.
Noble said the department is pursuing in-house separation projects within combined sewer overflow basin CSO 23 and looking at a lower-cost approach for final inlet removals. He also described plans to buy a sprayer for manhole rehabilitation to limit worker exposure to volatile organic compounds.
On operations, he said camera crews televised sanitary and storm lines and now attach lateral videos to Cartograph so mapping improves over time. He said maintenance crews pumped the Prairie Creek sanitary holding tanks twice weekly during the April–October season.
Board members praised the department’s progress. "Thanks to Tom, we've made some investments. Those investments have been paying off," said Mr. Clark, president of the Board of Sanitary Commissioners.
Noble also reported that the district started framing a new building for crews and expected it to be enclosed soon so interior work can begin.
Why it matters: Noble emphasized that mapping, routine cleaning, and targeted replacements reduce risk of backups and sinkholes, improve paving outcomes and make long-term CSO separation more affordable for the district.
Looking ahead, the engineering department expects to continue updating geofencing to track street-sweeper coverage, complete the identified sewer and storm replacements weather permitting, and proceed with in-house separation work for CSO 23.
