Residents of a Crown Point neighborhood won't have to worry as much about flooding, thanks to sewer improvements.
Officials cut the ribbon Friday on the Liberty Park pipelining project. Seventy-five percent of the cost was funded by the federal government, as part of the Section 219 program of the Water Resources Development Act.
Mayor Pete Land said Liberty Park is an older subdivision, and that comes with aging infrastructure and the risk of flooding. "It wasn't anything substantial, but when you own a home, one time is one time too many," Land noted. "We knew that the infrastructure was aging, so rather than come out and just trying to repair one specific section or one specific street, we knew to tackle the problem appropriately was to look at the entire subdivision at once."
The work involved lining about two miles of sewer pipes and rehabilitating 38 manholes to reduce inflow and infiltration.
U.S. Representative Frank Mrvan (D-Highland) said the project shows that the federal and local government have heard residents' concerns. "With this project, you see less phone calls and less flooding in the community," Mrvan said. "That is a health and safety issue. That is a quality of life issue. That is an economic issue."
Mayor Land said investing in infrastructure is necessary to support Crown Point's growth. "If we can't sustain what we already have and, certainly, if we can't prepare ourselves for the development, we're doing a disservice," Land said. "So, infrastructure is a priority in Crown Point, and I think this project just kind of exemplifies that."
Land added that the Section 219 grants have been an "astounding success" for Crown Point. So far, the city has completed $7.3 million dollars worth of projects, with almost 5.7-million of that coming from the federal government.
The project was overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, with construction work by Integrated Environmental Solutions of Gary.
