The Thomasville City Council recently awarded a contract to RPI Underground Utility Contractors out of Valdosta, Georgia to upgrade the existing Lift Stations #7 and #8, located at the southwest corner of South Pinetree Boulevard and Old Monticello Road and the intersection of South Pinetree Boulevard and Longleaf Drive, respectively. The upgrades are part of an on-going initiative to provide higher performance and reliability to customers.
City Engineer Wayne Newsome said that this initiative involves the replacement of the existing flooded suction canned lift stations with new submersible pumping systems “Over the past several years, the City has converted six of its nine total flooded suction sewage lift stations to these safer and more efficient submersible units,” he said. “The antiquated existing stations will be replaced with new components that take advantage of modern technology while also extending the service life of the stations for several more decades.”
The lift station initiative has been budgeted to complete one conversion per year. “The locations of Stations #7 and #8 coincided with the South Pinetree Boulevard Street Improvement Project and allowed us the opportunity to combine these upgrades into one construction bid document and award,” he said. “On average the cost of each project, if bid individually, would be approximately $375,000 each for a total of $750,000. The combined project will cost approximately $640,000, providing an approximate savings of $110,000 in sanitary sewer capital funds.”
Lift stations are a critical part of the City’s wastewater collection system, strategically placed throughout the infrastructure footprint. “Most of the wastewater infrastructure uses gravity to move waste downhill as it travels to the Wastewater Treatment Facility,” said Newsome. “The stations lift waste from a lower elevation to a higher elevation in situations where gravity works against the system.”
“I was pleased with the cost savings we were able to realize as a result of the combined project,” said Newsome. “This is a huge benefit to our community.”
The work on the lift stations is scheduled to begin in January of 2021. Upon completion of the project, only one remaining station will require the conversion. For more information about the lift station upgrades, please call the City of Thomasville’s Engineering Department at 229-227-7009.