Enterprise staff
EDMONDS — Sunset Avenue will be partially closed until nearly Christmas as the city expands a sewer pump station located underneath the street.
Most of the western half of the street will be closed as it is now for the next three to four weeks, city officials said. The street will be closed except for local traffic for about a month from mid to late June to mid to late July, said assistant city engineer Don Fiene.
The pump station near the northern end of Sunset Avenue is the oldest in the city, built in 1957. In recent years the number of incidents in which raw sewage had to be released into Puget Sound during high water runoff have increased because the station’s storage tanks were not large enough, officials said.
Sewage that enters the station is pumped though a pipeline southward, up the gradual slope of Sunset Avenue, and then is allowed to flow by gravity to the downtown sewer plant.
The work began May 20. It will involve replacing the holding area, increasing its capacity and replacing the pipeline.
Hisey Construction bid $663,201, below budget for the project, said city engineer Dave Gebert. A Public Works Trust Fund loan will cover a portion of the cost, he said.
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