Nearing the end of its service life, one of Jacksonville’s 40-year-old sewer lines needs to be augmented, so JEA is digging a hole.
That in itself is not remarkable because the utility completes dozens of projects each month.
What’s remarkable about this $12 million job is the hole will be about 4,200 feet long and will be drilled under the St. Johns River bed, between a parking lot at EverBank Field and the Utah Avenue sewage pump station on the Southbank in St. Nicholas.
“This is the biggest sewer line project in many years,” said Brian Roche, vice president of water and wastewater operations.
The hole will be lined with 42-inch steel casing pipe enclosing a 36-inch plastic pipe that will allow high volumes of wastewater to be pumped underneath the river.
The existing pipe serves 50,000 customers and can carry up to 10 million gallons of wastewater each day.
When the new line is installed, the daily capacity will be increased to nearly 17 million gallons.
Force mains are a critical part of JEA’s sewage collection network, designed to transport high volumes of wastewater from businesses and homes to the utility’s 11 wastewater treatment facilities.
The new pipe will be installed using horizontal directional drilling, a method originally developed in the 1920s for the oil and natural gas industry.
The process has been adapted over the past 20 years for water and sewer projects due to lower cost and less disruption compared to traditional trench installation of water and sewer lines.
The South Shores force main river crossing project is scheduled to be complete in early August.
Sewer and water infrastructure repair and replacement will be a line item in the utility’s budget for the foreseeable future.
The city transferred its water and sewer operations to JEA in 1997, three decades after the community-owned electric utility was created when the city and county governments were consolidated.
Some of the oldest components in the system have been in use since the late 1880s.
JEA monitors the useful life of its infrastructure and critical assets that would be difficult to repair are priority projects, Roche said.
The utility has invested $3 billion during the past 15 years to repair and replace sewer and water lines. Roche estimated future projects that will be required to maintain the system to cost about $120 million per year.
During the South Shores project, portions of the Sports Complex parking lots will be closed. Other areas around the stadium will be temporarily fenced during construction.
Temporary closures also will affect sections of Adams, Duval, East Beaver and Franklin streets within the Sports Complex parking areas.
To view a video of the horizontal drilling process, visit jea.com/southshores.
Customers with questions or concerns about the project may contact JEA’s Project Outreach team at (904) 665-7500 or email [email protected].
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