Route 4 Sewage Line Work Near Completion

VPR/Nina Keck

Kent Belden is the owner of Belden Construction which is repairing the Alpine Sewer line blown out during the August flood in Mendon. Belden says his employees have been installing about 250 feet of new pipe each day.

As VPR's Nina Keck reports, construction crews hope to finish replacing a damaged sewer line this week. Once that's finished, crews will be able to repave and reopen the highway's third lane.

(Keck) When Mendon Brook roared down the mountains, taking out huge chunks of Route 4,  it washed away 3,000 feet of sewer line, as well.     

Kent Belden, president of Belden Construction, has been in charge of replacing that line. Standing on the side of Route 4, he watches his employees lower a section of new pipe and then cover it with gravel.   

He says they've been laying about 250 feet of pipeline a day.

(Belden) "This job is wrapping up pretty fast. In the next few days you'll see significant changes. The sewer we're hoping to finish by Wednesday of this week and the paving will follow immediately behind that. Lot of guard rail to be replaced and so the end of this week."

(Keck) Belden says they had to finish the sewer line before they could turn their attention to reopening a third lane for traffic.  

He says if all goes well, paving should be finished by the end of next week and traffic will be able to resume normal speeds.   

While Belden says the project will finish ahead of schedule, he says the working conditions have taken a heavy toll on his equipment.   

He points to the steel teeth on a massive excavator.

(Belden) "So rocky, so abrasive. I  mean we were out there digging in that all day long and it just wears the teeth off the machines. We were going through a set of teeth in a week and normally they would last a couple months, at least. And  we replaced a set of teeth a week. So rocky, so abrasive it would just wear the teeth right  off the buckets. It's metal on metal and just tremendous wear."

(Keck) He says with steel teeth costing $150 a piece, equipment costs will likely add up fast at nearly every flood site.

For VPR News, I'm Nina Keck.