Saturday, December 14, 2024
The city of Granbury is making significant strides in its development, as ongoing capital improvement projects are transforming the once-small town into a thriving hub of activity and growth.
With several construction projects in the works, Director of Public Works Chester Nolen provided an update to the council Nov. 19 about the various capital improvement initiatives underway — everything from water treatment enhancements to road reconstructions.
KNOX GROUNDWATER STORANGE TANKS
Nolen explained that the Tank #1 on the Knox Groundwater Storage Tank is online and being used daily, but the top will require rehabilitation in 12-18 months.
The Tank #1 — which supplies water to residents on the west area of town — was slated for improvements after the top of the tank rusted.
Knox Tank #2 is also slated for future refurbishment, with Nolen noting that it will be taken care of in a future budget.
"The tops, they have rusted considerably because of the amount of chlorine that was being injected and the gas was causing some rust up there on the top,” Nolen said. “The structure itself is still sound.”
WATER TREATMENT PLANT
The city’s Water Treatment Plant is now fully operational after a second water pump was rehabilitated and reinstalled.
The plant, which went online in 2017, is responsible for producing safe and acceptable water in accordance with State and Federal health standards.
“Operationally, we ran for about a month with just one pump, because the repair time on the pumps is considerable,” Nolen said. “I think (City Manager) Chris (Coffman) and I both were tired of rolling the dice on that with just one pump working, so we had the other pump installed just recently, so we're operating on two pumps and everything is good at the water treatment plant.”
He noted that a council-approved additional pump is expected to arrive mid-next year, as it has a six-to-seven-month delivery time.
SOUTH WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT
The South Wastewater Treatment Plant is officially complete, with Nolen adding that steps are currently being taken to address an odor.
“We have identified the source of that odor,” he said. “Right now, we hope to get to the point where we have no odors coming from that plant, or at least they're so minimal you can't smell it.”
According to the city website, the plant will produce water with even less phosphorus and nitrates. The water will continue to be sold to the Harbor Lakes Golf Club and also returned to Lake Granbury.
EAST WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT
As for the East Wastewater Treatment Plant, construction is currently four-to-six-weeks ahead of schedule, with completion anticipated in 2026.
“The contractor is very insistent that they're going to try to keep that schedule and be in here and out of here and have a finished product for us, so that will help greatly,” Nolen said. “That will also allow us to move forward with development in the city, as far as new construction.”
He also added that nearly 5,000 cubic yards of concrete have been poured and most treatment units are already built.
CALINCO DRIVE RECONSTRUCTION
The Calinco Drive Reconstruction project is currently about 65% complete, as Nolen explained that there have been a few delays due to weather.
“We switched from asphalt to concrete and we’ve had a couple of little interruptions with the rain that have caused us to have to wait for the material before we can start laying concrete,” he said. “But they are moving forward with that, and we hope to be completed in the month of January.”
PEARL STREET PIPE/SEWER UPDATE
Nolen noted that a contractor is currently in town working to address the sewer manhole and pipe bursting situation that occurred on east Pearl Street and Brazos Street.
"We have a crew, and they are hard at it,” he said. “We have one of the owners of the company in today, and he is here to inspect what's going on. We had a little hiccup when the cable that we were using to pull pipe through the old pipes broke and it broke under Pearl Street. We had to get a permit from TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) so we're moving forward.”
RED WATER ISSUE
Nolen also provided an update on the red water issue that was affecting residents on Elizabeth Street and Penrod Boulevard back in September.
“We have engineers that are designing the water lines to replace the galvanized mains on Elizabeth and Pembroke,” he said. “Once we get the engineering work, I believe the city manager is prepared to move forward with construction on those two areas of installing new water lines, and that will take care of the red water that we currently see in that area.”
MAIN LIFT STATION
Nolen explained that after an inspector and engineer were able to check the rotation on the pumps and the control panels of the city’s Main Lift Station, it was revealed that the programming is not quite ready to do a startup.
While it’s not quite operational, Nolen noted that they hope to have the project completed before the first of the year.
“We're pushing to get it ready. I don't think we're far off from being able to start up, but I'll keep you posted as they progress,” he said. “That is moving forward, and ... certainly, I would like to have it (ready) within a week or two after Thanksgiving.”
U.S. HIGHWAY 377 AT ARCHER COURT
During the discussion, Mayor Jim Jarratt asked about any updates regarding the construction at the airport — including the right turn lane at Archer Court.
In response, Coffman deferred to Deputy City Manager Michael Ross, who’s the project manager regarding the airport.
Ross explained that the Archer Court project has received approval for a change order, which will allow the construction of right and left turn lanes on U.S. Highway 377, along with necessary signage to direct drivers to the airport.
He also mentioned that a survey of the airport property is underway to help finalize land leases and plans for future development.
FUTURE ROAD CONSTRUCTION
Place 4 Councilman Skip Overdier also brought up how the city has pledged a million dollars a year to repair roads, but that the amount would never be enough to fully address the city’s road repair needs.
"That's never going to get us ahead of the game,” he said. “Are we at some point going to be looking at all the roads that we have and say, ‘OK, these are all the roads that need repairing,’ and just kind of rank them, A, B, C and D, try to get the worst ones first, and then figure out how much we need?”
Coffman explained that a study is currently being conducted on all the city streets to see which ones need to be repaired.
"As we talked about in the budget workshop, we're not getting caught up at a million dollars a year so we're going to have to do something different,” he said. “And what we're seeing is a lot of these streets that were done in 2012, 2013 and 2014 are going to need complete reconstruction.”
Coffman explained that the previous approach of grinding off the surface and applying an overlay to the roads hasn’t been effective, as some streets have had to be replaced even sooner than expected —within 10 years.
He also pointed out that when he became city manager in 2015, two streets that had been repaired at that time have since already needed to be replaced.
“We're going to pay for those bad decisions made over a decade ago, but you don't know what you don't know,” he said. "It's going to take money, and we need to put together a bond package, as we talked about, and do a big group of streets. We have to figure out what we need to do to move forward and strategically find a solution.”
