Underground Construction - December 2019 - 11

Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, who represents
the area, says the investment "will ensure Boothbay
Harbor's wastewater is handled efficiently and
safely for years to come and will help the town
to make overdue improvements."
The money's part of $201 million the USDA is
providing for rural water improvements in 31 states.

New Orleans Could Get
Up to $111 Million Loan
for Sewer Upgrades
The Environmental Protection Agency has invited
New Orleans to apply for up to $111 million in loans.
The money could help the city's Sewerage and
Water Board meet a 2025 federal court deadline
for completing that restoration.
The EPA got letters of interest from 51 public
and private agencies, and 38 were chosen to apply
for $6 billion in loans to help finance about double
that amount in water infrastructure investments, the
federal agency said in its own news release.
The New Orleans agency and EPA will be work-

ing on the arrangement, with the aim of getting the
first payment in mid-2020.
"We're confident the negotiations with EPA will
go smoothly, and we're looking forward to the
partnership this process will forge for the future,"
chief financial officer Yvette Downs said.
New Orleans' sewer and sewage treatment
system has been under a federal court consent
decree with EPA since 1998 for violating the Clean
Water Act for "sanitary sewer overflow violations"
that sent untreated sewage into Lake Pontchartrain,
the Mississippi River and other waterways. Deadlines
were extended three times after Hurricane Katrina
flooded 80 percent of the city in 2005.
It said the loan will speed up work on the others
and gives the agency the flexibility to move future
money toward other critical projects.

New Jersey Gas Utility Pipeline
Project Named Project of the Year
A gas main upgrade project from Public Service
Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G) has been named as

Project of the Year by the Project Management
Institute-New Jersey Chapter (PMINJ).
The project is part of the company's Gas System
Modernization Program, a three-year, $905 million
program which launched in 2016.
Over the course of the project, the company
replaced more than 500 miles of gas mains and
approximately 38,000 services lines. The program
allowed the company to upgrade its cast iron and
steel gas lines with plastic pipe.
The second phase of the project, GSMP II, will
cover an additional 875 miles of pipes and other
gas infrastructure improvements through 2023. The
$1.9 billion in infrastructure upgrades under GSMP
II, which launched January 2019, are expected
to replace up to 875 miles of aging cast iron and
unprotected steel gas pipes with plastic piping.
In addition, GSMP II is expected to enable the installation of excess flow valves that automatically shut
off gas flow if a service line is damaged, and better
support the use of high-efficiency appliances. *

UConOnline.com | DECEMBER 2019

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Underground Construction - December 2019

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