Rehoboth sewer project back on track

Rehoboth Beach officials are accepting bids on a project to reroute sewer lines in the Schoolvue neighborhood.

Bids will be opened Wednesday, Sept. 4, and Mayor Sam Cooper said the bid is expected to be awarded in October.  No start date has been set, but mid-November would be the earliest, Cooper said.

Last October, the city commissioners approved seeking a 10-year, $450,000 loan at 3 percent interest from the state’s Water Infrastructure Advisory Council, formerly the Clean Water Advisory Council.

The plan is to reroute and realign 1,900 feet of sewer lines and manholes along Stockley and New Castle streets extended and Old Bay Road. Both Cooper and Cape Henlopen School District Superintendent Bob Fulton said there have been no problems with the Schoolvue sewer lines in recent years. Fulton oversees the area's largest tenant, Rehoboth Elementary School.

The lines are being rerouted because they run underneath houses where they cannot be repaired, city officials have said.

Cooper said the project required permits from DelDOT because piping will be routed on the edge of the right of way, close enough that safety barriers will have to be put on Old Bay Road to protect workers and keep cars away from the hole. The barriers, he said, will cause a slight shift in the traffic pattern. The city’s proposal is to use steel piping bored into the ground in 20-foot pieces, Cooper said.

DNREC spokesman Michael Globetti said the timing of DelDOT’s permit allows construction only after Labor Day.