Riva Road Sewer Work Clogs Traffic

Traffic was snarled on Riva Road on Wednesday during the morning rush hour, causing significant delays from the Riva Road South River Bridge to the Route 665 interchange. The ongoing work to upgrade a main sewer line along caused the traffic tie-ups, but county officials said similar delays aren’t expected for the remainder of the project.

Matt Diehl, county spokesman, said the rush-hour lane closures were necessary on Wednesday because the contractor had to use heavy equipment to unload several truckloads of 20-foot pipes.

“We apologize for the inconvenience to motorists as we work to improve the reliability of our utility infrastructure,” Diehl said in an email to Patch. “Despite the use of flaggers for safety and the contractor’s adherence to the Maintenance of Traffic plan detailed in their contract, they have been instructed to only unload future deliveries during off-rush hours times.”

He said there is only one more scheduled delivery of similar scope.

The $4.3 million sewer project is designed to replace 6,000 linear feet of old metal sewer main along Riva Road with the more reliable and hard to break high-density polyethylene plastic piping, Diehl said.

The replacement stretches from the South River Bridge to Speicher Drive and is part of the Department of Public Works ongoing comprehensive preventive maintenance program, he said.

Work is scheduled to be completed in September.

“This is an improvement to a critical part of the wastewater-collection system and will transport wastewater from the Sylvan Shores, Cape St. John’s and Riva Woods communities to the existing collection system just north of Speicher Drive,” Diehl said.

He said the PVC piping is not affected by corrosion and increases its performance in an “environmentally sensitive area.”

In the past five years, more than 1,700 feet of old sewer pipes have been replaced, he said.

For more information, visit www.aacounty.org/DPW/Engineering/CapitalProjects.cfm.