The City of Carmel and the Utilities Department are completing a sewer line rehabilitation project thanks to budgetary savings from a wastewater plant expansion project in 2020.
This project was completed underbudget by $600,000. Those savings were then used by the Utilities Department to make much-needed improvements to sewer lines throughout the city.
The Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) issued a $15.9 million loan to Carmel Utilities in April of 2020 for the following projects:
- Wastewater Plant Expansion to 14 million gallons per day from 12 million gallons per day
- Construction of new Chemical Feed Building at the Wastewater Plant
- Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation
- Solar Panel Installation at 106th Street and Hazel Dell Parkway
The IFA approved the use of the $600,000 in savings for other projects.
Thanks to those unexpected savings, several upgrades were able to be completed, including a sewer lining project consisting of 14 gravity mains, a 36-inch interceptor gravity sewer main, two 12-inch gravity sewer mains and 11 eight-inch gravity sewer mains.
The city was also able to make much-needed improvements to nearly a dozen sanitary manholes.
Most of the work occurred on various streets within subdivisions that are at or near 50 years old. The areas included Village of Mt. Carmel, Johnson Acres, Wilson Village, Cool Creek, Eden Glen, Brookshire, Woodland Springs, Auman Addition, and Briar Creek.