Mt. Vernon, Ill. Sanitary Sewer Project Advances with IEPA Loan Approval

MT. VERNON, Ill. (KFVS) – The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) has approved the loan to the City of Mt. Vernon for a major sanitary sewer improvement project.

The project includes the construction of new forcemains for the Maple Street and Wagner Road lift stations, the construction of new gravity flow lines, water intakes at the sanitary sewer plant and the coating of various sewer lines in the Mannen Street area of ​​Mt. Vernon.

City Manager Mary Ellen Bechtel says the total cost of the project is $5,088,597.79. This loan has a term of 20 years at an interest rate of 0.83% and the approval also includes a forgiveness of principal in the amount of $1,526,579.34, or 30% of the cost of the project. .

“We continue to improve utilities in the City of Mt. Vernon, and this is an important part of the plan to improve the sanitary sewer collection system,” said Councilor Ray Botch, chairman of the utilities committee. public. “The City team has worked very hard to be able to complete these projects to improve the sanitary sewer collection system, maintain the sewer plant and reduce the inflow and infiltration storm water into the sanitary sewer. This is great news for the City of Mt. Vernon and a giant step towards our improvement goals,” said Botch.

This project was started in 2019 when Heneghan and Associates was contracted to do the engineering and IEPA application.

“It was a long process to get here. We are very happy to receive this approval from the IEPA. It would be much more difficult for us to manage the cost of these projects without the help of APEI. The next step is bid approvals which should be coming very soon so we can hopefully begin construction in early fall 2022. This is one of the largest sanitary sewer projects for the city of Mt. Vernon,” Bechtel said.

Completion of this project is expected to be in July 2023 if construction begins early this fall.

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