SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) - The city is spending $35 million dollars to replace four miles of sanitary pipes that transports over 90 percent of the wastewater for the region.
Director of Public Works Mark Cotter says money for the project in northeast Sioux Falls comes from waste water rates paid by homeowners and businesses. Cotter says those rates are invested back into the infrastructure that serves the system. He says Sioux Falls residents enjoy some of the lowest water and sewer rates in the upper midwest.
Two projects begin this year and are slated to be finished in the fall of 2017.
Crews are installing a 42-inch main pipe, at over $9 million and just over two miles long, from East Rice Street to the Water Reclamation Plant.
The second project, set to bid soon, includes installing a 72-inch pipe from west of Cliff Avenue to the Brandon Road Pump Station. The pipe will increase capacity and reduce the risk of backups and sewer overflows. That price tag is $19.1 million.
Cotter says its the infrastructure that's underground that has the biggest impact on resident's day-to-day lives.