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Littleton faces $11.2 million in storm‑sewer repairs; staff recommends temporary sewer‑fund loan and applying for state low‑interest loans
Summary
After multiple sinkholes and culvert failures in 2023, staff identified around $11.2 million in high‑ and medium‑priority storm‑sewer projects. Staff recommended a short‑term internal loan from the sewer fund for immediate 2025 repairs and applying for Colorado state revolving funds for the remaining work.
City staff presented the state of Littleton’s storm‑sewer system and a near‑term funding plan after a series of culvert failures and sinkholes exposed failing corrugated metal pipe (CMP) throughout the city. Water resources and engineering staff showed the inventory, explained the CMP life‑cycle issue and described six immediate, high‑priority projects totaling about $7 million, plus additional medium‑priority work.
Stormwater Manager Sarah White said video inspections completed starting in 2018 revealed more storm infrastructure than previously known and showed CMP installed in the 1980s reaching end‑of‑life. White listed high‑cost failures from 2023: Jackass Hill Road (approx. $1.3 million), Broadway & Jamieson (ca. $600,000), Powers Park (ca. $400,000) and East Mineral Avenue (ca. $1.8 million). Those emergency repairs and other high‑priority replacements left an estimated funding gap of about $8.7 million to cover all identified high‑priority work through 2026.
Finance staff said the storm drainage enterprise fund’s current revenue stream cannot absorb the full cost immediately. They recommended a two‑step financing approach: (1) authorize a $2.8 million internal loan from the sewer (wastewater) fund to cover the most urgent 2025 projects, with a proposed seven‑year repayment schedule beginning in 2027; and (2) apply to the Colorado Water Resources/State Revolving Fund (SRF) program for roughly $5.1 million to cover remaining high‑priority projects at lower interest and longer terms.
Council members raised concerns about neighborhood flooding, how pipe replacements or detention projects could affect FEMA floodplain delineations, and the timing of design work to minimize traffic and school impacts. Staff said most replacements will be designed to maintain a no‑rise condition in floodplains and that they will coordinate construction timing with schools and public‑works schedules. Staff also recommended completing a formal storm‑drainage rate study to set long‑term rates that will sustain O&M and capital needs; any rate changes would take effect in 2026–27.
What’s next: Council was asked to authorize the internal sewer‑fund loan process and to direct staff to proceed with SRF loan applications and to initiate a stormwater rate study. No formal vote occurred at the study session; staff requested direction to begin loan applications and the rate study process.
