HARTFORD – As part of its program to resolve long-standing flooding problems in the City of Hartford and to reduce combined sewer overflows to the Connecticut River, work on the Metropolitan District Commission’s (MDC) new Woodland Street storm drain is scheduled to resume April 21.

Due to the severe weather, the District’s contractor, Paganelli Construction, was forced to suspend work for the winter. Paganelli Construction will resume work April 21 and should complete the project this fall. The MDC has recently completed improvements to the water service in the area of Woodland Street and Homestead and Homestead Avenue, which will facilitate the major construction planned for this spring.

Work will begin in the intersection of Woodland Avenue and Homestead Avenue. During the first few weeks of construction, Homestead Avenue will be closed in this area. Detour signs will be posted in advance to reroute traffic and minimize any delays. Construction will then progress down Woodland Street toward Albany Avenue. At least one lane of Woodland Street will remain open during the construction. Hartford Police will be on site to control traffic and minimize any disruptions.

The installation of the new storm drain will remove storm water from the sanitary sewerage system on Woodland Street, and therefore, reduce the number of combined sewer overflows and the amount of sewage to the Hartford Water Pollution Control Facility. This new storm sewer will help to reduce sewer surcharges and backups into properties in the area.

Combined sewer overflows have their roots in the 1840s and 1850s, when Hartford’s first sewers were constructed to handle both sanitary sewage and storm runoff. Then, fewer than 15,000 people lived in and around the city.

When there were substantial rains, the 160 miles of combined sewers were not large enough to simultaneously handle the flows of sanitary sewage and storm water. The result was that mixed sewage spilled into the Connecticut River and Wethersfield Cove at state-permitted overflow points before it could be effectively treated at the Hartford Water Pollution Control Facility.

Since November 1990, when voters in MDC municipalities overwhelmingly authorized the District to spend $80 million to significantly reduce combined sewer overflows, the MDC has made improvements to the water pollution control facilities and sewage collection system, dramatically reducing the number and frequency of combined sewer overflows.

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