The Mount Laurel Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MLTMUA) has announced the recent completion of a capital improvement project in the township.
The project – to replace valves located at the Ramblewood Sanitary Sewage Pumping Station – began July 11.. The work itself consisted of replacing four suction valves, four check valves and four discharge valves.
Chuck Bernheimer, authority operations director, explained the township’s need for the work, citing a lack of preventative maintenance to preserve the valves as the main factor.
“By replacing these 12 valves, it increased the station’s pumping ability,” he noted. (Replacing the valves) will make it possible for authority personnel to perform necessary preventative maintenance, which had to be forgone during the last few years.”
According to the authority, their Ramblewood Pump Station pumps more than 1 million gallons of wastewater per day, estimated to be 25 percent of the township’s sewage. The wastewater is then transferred across town to the authority’s treatment plant located near Hartford Road and the New Jersey Turnpike.
The Ramblewood Pump Station is the largest of the authority’s 41 sanitary sewer pump facilities and has been rehabilitated several times since its reconstruction nearly three-and-a-half decades ago. In 2010, the authority constructed a solar facility near the station to supply it with electricity as well as the authority’s water supply well.
The project’s contractor was JVS Industrial and Commercial Contractors Inc. of Edison. The job permitted 14 days of bypass pumping in order to complete the work, but contractors completed it in just four days. Bernheimer noted that the job can be difficult, so the authority was delighted with the result.
“Bypass pumping can bring complications,” he noted. “So we were pleased that (the contractor) was able to complete the work more quickly than expected.”
The anticipated final cost of the project, including engineering, is approximately $100,000 that is being funded through the authority’s Renewal & Replacement Fund.
Cheryl Coco Capri, chairwoman of the township’s MUA, said the completed improvements will allow the authority to continue producing an efficient service for residents.
“By constantly renewing our infrastructure, we can provide our customers with the reliable wastewater services, which they expect,” he said.
For more information on the valve improvements or other MLTMUA project’s, visit the authority’s website at www.mltmua.com.
