Early phase of Paradise sewer project likely to be completed in October

PARADISE — Things appear to be running smoothly for the Paradise sewer project with the first phase projected to be completed by the end of October, right on schedule.

Project Manager Colin Nelson gave a presentation before the Paradise Town Council on Tuesday in which he went over the current progress of the massive infrastructure project as well as what’s to come.

The town opted for a still somewhat experimental Progressive Design-Build Process, which skirts the traditional method of going out to bid for each step and instead connects the design side with the construction side in hopes of creating more concise and consistent planning and execution.

A slide presented to the Paradise Town Council on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024 shows a map of a proposed diversion in the pipe system from a portion of Pearson Road to Buschmann Road. The smaller image shows that three pump stations would be needed if the town were to stick with the original plan of running the pipe all the way along Pearson Road in Paradise, California. (Town of Paradise/Contributed)

“During this portion of the project, we have looked at the design of the project that was contained within the original technical documents as it was approved through the programmatic EIR (environmental impact report), and we have begun the preliminary engineering phase,” Nelson said. “The culmination of this will be the production of the basis of design report, which is due mid-October in draft form.”

Nelson said the team has been on schedule if not early in some areas of the pre-construction phase and below budget.

“There are a lot of really good indicators and a lot of credit due to the team,” Nelson said. “This is a huge, massive project, and we’re in pretty good sync at this point in time.”

Given the project’s scope, the teams involved have had to take care of substantial environmental permitting through different agencies including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Nelson said mitigation procedures have been identified for environmental impacts from the project.

Trunk line change

One major deviation from the original design surrounded a trunk line, or a pipe that connects multiple smaller pipes to the primary lines, that was supposed to run along Pearson Road between Clark Road and Skyway.

Those who have lived in or visited Paradise know that Pearson Road runs along hills with inclines and declines. Nelson said the connection on Pearson Road would mean installing three pump stations to move the wastewater continuously across the town.

“We have discovered that by rerouting and adding an extra line along Buschman (Road) that comes down Recreation Drive, we would eliminate two of those pump stations and add a bunch of users to the system without reducing any of the hookups along Pearson (Road),” he explained.

Next steps

Once the basis of the design is completed in October, the team will be working to complete 30% of the design between the final quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2026.

This will lead into the right-of-way phase, when the town will work on property easements along Skyway and Clark Road in order to lay down construction for pipes that lead to Chico.

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“Environmental permitting is already underway and is going to continue well into 2027,” Nelson said. “That’s basically (working with) the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That’s the long straw there.”

Construction itself is slated to begin toward the end of 2027, and the overall project should be completed and functioning by the end of 2031.