Trinity Engineering & Technical Services, LLC was retained by a land owner in Adams, MA who wanted to investigate alternatives to installing two Title 5 septic systems for his two residential properties. Trinity determined that there was existing municipal sewer infrastructure in the area, but it was over 1000′ away. Additionally, the sewer infrastructure was not fully operational. It had a gravity section of sewer line leading to a pump chamber, and over 2000 feet of force main. But there were no pumps installed in the pump chamber and therefore no way to utilize it’s capability. The road between the residences and the gravity sewer connection had recently been paved. There was also a culvert crossing a stream and Bordering Vegetated Wetlands (BVW) along the stream. Both the newly paved road and wetlands would render any sort of ‘cut and cover’ solution to install the sewer line unworkable. Directional drilling was evaluated as a way of overcoming these challenges.
By utilizing Directional Drilling, Trinity was able to design a sewer force main which could be installed along the side of the existing paved road, within the right of way. By drilling under the existing stream culvert crossing and buffer zone to the (BVW) Trinity was able to connect to the existing gravity sewer line stub in the right of way. This approach completely avoided all disturbance to the new pavement and the wetland resource areas. Trinity also designed a length of force main to be installed through the existing gravity line and existing non-operational pump chamber. A length of sewer force main was installed within the gravity sewer section leading to the existing pump chamber, through the existing pump chamber, and connecting to the 2000′ length of existing force main. By careful calculations of the pumping scenarios under the temporary and future permanent piping arrangements, Trinity was able to design a common pump chamber for the residences that would push the sewer from the residential properties over 3200 lineal feet utilizing the existing infrastructure, but at the same time not interfere with the future intended use of the existing pump chamber. In the future, the temporary section was designed to be removed without excavation and would discharge to the existing pump chamber once it was made operational.
The permitting and construction costs for the Directional Drilling option were competitive with the cost of designing and installing two individual Title 5 systems for the residential properties.
Trinity handled all the necessary town permitting and wetland permitting.