MDC Work Temporarily Closes Mill Pond Park Trails
NEWINGTON - Mill Pond Park won’t be getting a new Mortensen Community Center, but the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) has been doing some work there that prompted the closing of the area’s walking trails for a few weeks.

       The MDC has been lining 2,400 feet of piping that runs underneath Mill Pond Park as part of its comprehensive Clean Water Project that launched back in 2006.

       â€"It’s to reduce infill and infiltration which happens when pipes develop cracks or tree roots are in them,” said Keri Martin, an MDC spokesperson. â€"Groundwater can get in. If you have more water in the pipe than its capacity, it can end up backing up and going into a house.”

       This is a problem that has not been unique to just Newington and the pipes below Mill Pond Park, Martin said. The MDC’s wider Clean Water Project is aimed at alleviating to the tune of $2.1 billion. The lining portion of the project covers 54,000 linear feet of underground piping--5 percent of which runs through Mill Pond Park-and will cost $5.5 million, according to the MDC.

       Lining, as an alternative to the replacement of the pipes, involves forming a â€"pipe within a pipe.” Steam circulates through a resin-coated felt tubing and is pulled into the existing pipe, creating resistance to corrosion, according to the MDC website.

       Martin described replacing the piping as â€"infinitely more expensive.”

       â€"It is less expensive [lining the pipes] than replacing the pipes and it’s less intrusive because we don’t have to open the pipe,” she said. â€"It’s the only way to not disrupt people flushing their toilets and running their water.”

       It also minimizes the risk to the area’s wildlife, which is good news for the Newington residents who, for the past few months, have campaigned against the construction of a new Mortensen Community Center on a 1.6-acre Mill Pond Park parcel on the Willard Avenue side over concerns regarding the loss of open space and any environmental hazards that might have endangered nearby wetlands.

       â€"We’re aware that that is a sensitive area, due to the recent referendum, but it’s nothing above ground,” Martin said.

       The MDC has been operating at the site under a â€"no dig policy” in constructing a â€"cured-in-place pipe,” she said.

       â€"We’re lining in place, so we’re so much less disruptive to the environment, instead of opening up the ground and hurting the environment,” Martin said.

       The work at Mill Pond Park started Sept. 22 and was expected to take three to five weeks, according to a notice from the MDC that was posted to the town’s website.

       The portion of the piping being lined stretches from the Town Hall building, through the middle of the park, and out to Brookdale Avenue, according to a map provided along with the notice.

       The Clean Water Project as a whole also involves the replacement of 180 sewer manholes, nine of which are in Newington, according to Martin.

       This isn’t the first time the Project has landed MDC contractors in Newington-last year the Commission installed 2,200 feet of sanitary sewer along Church Street.
MORE NEWINGTON NEWS  |  STORY BY MARK DIPAOLA  |  Oct 17 2014  |  COMMENTS?