As the city’s Public Works Department sees the light at the end of the tunnel on the sewer project, officials are asking residents to be patient with a nuisance on Lake Havasu Avenue and Hagen Way.

Following the discovery of groundwater below the building site for the Sweetwater/Hagen Pump Station, city officials created a bump to pump the water into the closest wash — across Lake Havasu Avenue. Drivers heading on the road must slow down to 5 miles per hour over the bump and while original estimates pegged completion by March 29, officials now say the amount of water could add to the nuisance for a few more weeks.

“There’s a fairly significant amount there. We haven’t quantified it but we’ve got a little ways to go,” Interim Public Works Director Mark Clark said. Clark added that enough water must be pumped out before laying a concrete box foundation for the pump station. “What’s even more interesting is that we need to pump until we get enough weight on it; otherwise, the station would just kind of float there and could cause major damage.”

Clark said city regulations and cost concerns prevented crews from pumping the freshwater directly to a treatment station.

“It’s not potable water, and we couldn’t add it directly to our allocation,” he said. “If we tried to use it, it would have to come from our allocation so there’s really no way for us to use it.”

Clark and Project Manager Jeremy Abbott said pumping should be complete in early April.

“As soon as we can get the structure high enough and backfilled so it won’t float away, then we can shut off the pumps,” Abbott said. “We know it’s an inconvenience right now but thought people would appreciate the bump more than if we let the water flow across the street.”

Clark said he doesn’t expect the delay to affect construction or further delays on the Sweetwater/Hagen Pump Station and said projects are actually moving ahead of schedule.

“I think we’re in the home stretch,” Clark said. “We should see the awards of these last few projects over the next few months. I think we’ve got about 12 months of construction left so we’re happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The last three sections — Chemehuevi, Mockingbird and Trotwood — should be complete by June or July if operations continue to move according to schedule, Abbott said.

“I’ve been (working on the sewer project) since the very beginning in 2002. I’ve worked with the city since the very first project started and that was the Smoketree Area Sewer Project when we started with a little over 100 connections,” Abbott said. “With these last three, there are going to be around 1,400 more connections. So that gives you an idea of how far we’ve come since the beginning on this.”

An initial estimate for the project put the final cost of the wastewater system expansion project around $463 million. Clark said current projections estimate the final cost of the project around $353 million and is expected to drop even further.

“Even amongst that, there are $10 or $11 million in projects that don’t have to occur right away,” Clark said, referring to possible unnecessary connections in the original project. “What we anticipate is that in the next five to 20 years, those will be necessary but those things might change in the next few years.”

City Council members and city financial staff stated Tuesday work is being done to see how the $110 million savings will affect sewer rates in the city by either possibly eliminating a future rate increase or eliminating several possible increases.

You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com