Mayor Barlow Announces Completion of Phase 2 of City Sewer Separation Project
Oswego Mayor Billy Barlow announced today the completion of Phase 2 of 4 of the West side sewer separation project in the City of Oswego. The project started earlier this year as part of the $85 million sewer separation project in the City of Oswego, which began in 2011 and will continue through 2022. The second phase of the project included major road construction and infrastructure replacement work in the City’s 5th Ward, from Ohio Street to West Albany, from Route 48 to West Fifth Street, and some minor work in the First ward along West Eighth Street, West Cayuga Street and West Seneca Street, and was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.
“I am pleased to report that the second phase of the sewer separation project was finished almost a month ahead of schedule and $100,000 under our projected budget. We also had minimal complaints from residents and motorists within the construction zone, and I greatly appreciate their patience and cooperation with this massive undertaking,” said Mayor Billy Barlow. “In 2014, we dealt with the first phase of this large project in the 7th ward, and we did not have a good experience at all. Our residents were inconvenienced, the roads were not properly repaired, and we had a large amount of expensive change orders. This time around, we emphasized the importance of cooperating with residents, and we increased the City’s involvement in overseeing the project bringing more accountability and responsibility to the work being done. I applaud GHD Engineers for overseeing the project and MCI construction who did an outstanding job mitigating the affects of the construction and staying right on schedule and $100,000 under budget,” the Mayor continued. ”I also would like to thank the City staff, who worked closely on this project, including our Engineer Technician Bob Johnson, Clerk of the Works Robert McGrath and DPW Commissioner Tom Kells” Barlow said.
The sewer separation project stems from the Federal Consent the City entered into 2011, mandating the City to separate their wastewater system from the storm water collection system ultimately resulting in fewer discharges and overflows into the Oswego River and Lake Ontario. The completion of the second phase of the project leaves the City with work left to do in 2021 in the Third Ward in the downtown Oswego area.
