The Euclid City Council has approved a contract with Trax Construction to begin work replacing the aging sewer and water lines that run under East 220th Street and East 221st Street north of Lakeshore Boulevard.

The contract, awarded Aug. 19 at a cost of $5,369,928, means crews can begin work in the fall and the project should be completed by summer 2025, said service manager Dan Knecht.

In an interview after the council meeting, Knecht said that residents of East 220th and East 221st streets have frequently had problems with backups in their basements in recent years and that those problems should be resolved once the new lines are installed.

“These two streets are older streets and when they were built, these streets typically had cottages, very old infrastructure, some of it over a hundred years old,” Knecht said. “This is where the sewer lines and the sanitation are being replaced, then the Cleveland Water Fund is taking over the water line part for us and at the end the street is being rebuilt, so it really is all being done.”

“Dominion Energy will also be carrying out gas line work as part of the project, so it will be a significant improvement to all major utilities on this street.”

He said the city has wanted to begin work on these particular subway lines for some time, but was waiting to be able to do multiple replacements at once due to the nature and complexity of the project.

“The sewers on this street are between 15 and 20 feet deep, depending on the section of road,” said Knecht. “Since we knew we would be going down that deep anyway, we wanted to make sure we could put the water main in the same place.”

“We had to get the funding cycles right to get it, and we finally did that and got it all together…” he said. “There were basement backups on that street and some other sewer problems that we had investigated. We’ve been out there several times with our camera truck to identify some of those, and sometimes we can go out and do small pipe repairs, but in this case it just wasn’t worth saving.”

He said that although the work is taking place underground, residents in the area will be able to reap the benefits above ground. He said that once the sewer work is completed in winter, residents will be able to rest easy knowing that their toilets will continue to function for the foreseeable future.

“The residents of these streets will now have greater security because they are connected to good sewers,” said Knecht. “They will have better water supply. Some houses on the street have low water pressure because the line is old. This will help restore it and get it back to the right pressure.”

“But it takes care of the most important utilities and paves the way for this street to be successful in the future.”