Last night, City Council held a public hearing on the relocation of a sewer pipeline into McIntire Park to make room for the Meadowcreek Parway. City Council moved the ordinance to a second reading with some amendments.
Councilor David Brown was mostly concerned with the “firm” language of the RWSA ordinance and asked if the city could own the line, which would be decided by the Rivanna Board.
Opponents of the parkway came in full force.
“This is a public park,” said Daniel Bluestone, UVA professor and member of the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park.
“The Rivanna Sewer and Water Authority is on the verge of becoming a main player in the maintenance of our park.” Bluestone also said that the natural landscape of trees and shrubbery “has been decimated, by not only the road project, but by the sewer project.”
Fellow coalition member Peter Kleeman urged City Council not to take action or to deny the permanent easement. According to Kleeman, the road project is not mature enough for the Virginia Department of Transportation to be requesting right-of-way related easements.
The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) owns a sanitary sewer collection line that is commonly known as the Schenk’s Branch Interceptor, which runs approximately 7,000 linear feet. According to city staff report, the line begins on the east side of McIntire Road, close to the county office building, and continues along McIntire Road and through McIntire Park.
City staff reported that the 21-inch pipe is “undersized” for current use and a new 30-inch pipe will have to be installed. RWSA will be replacing and relocating about 640 feet of the line, and an additional 1,075 feet will relocated by VDOT to make way for the construction of McIntire Road Extended.
The replacement of the line will cost the City $815,730 with about $455,000 going toward excavation for the installment of the new, bigger pipeline, deeper in the ground (about 15 feet).
