8th Street Sewer Separation Project Stalled

The city of Zanesville has a new plan of attack for a downtown sewer separation project.

It’s located along 8th street near the intersection of Marietta Street. Crews initially had a problem with the instability of the soils around the pipe.

"We thought we’d shut the project down, regroup a little bit, and see if we can come up with a better design that would shallow the trench depth up and not have to reach 15 feet, " says Public Service Director, Mike Sims.

City Engineer Chip Saunders came up with the idea to install a storm sewer instead of a new sanitary sewer, which will only go down eight feet instead of 15. The sewer separation is a stimulus grant project.

"I certainly don’t expect to have to borrow any more money to finish this, " says Sims.

It’s expected to be completed within the next three to four weeks.