Kendall, Hamlin to celebrate start of $17 million sewer project on Thursday

Photos by Tom Rivers: Kendall Town Supervisor Tony Cammarata stands at Lake View Park which was established through the REDI program – Lake Ontario Resiliency and Economic Development Initiative. This area used to be a turnaround along Lake Ontario. Big chunks of the land were washed out and eroded during high lake levels in 2017 and 2019. The town’s new sewer project with Hamlin will start near this park.

KENDALL – The towns of Kendall and Hamlin on Thursday will celebrate the start of construction on one of the bigger municipal projects in recent memory – a $17 million sewer project that will stretch about 15 miles in the two towns.

Two contractors are lined up and ready to start work on the project which serves about 270 residences in Kendall and about 30 in Hamlin.

Blue Heron Construction Co. LLC will be paid $8,326,480 to install low-pressure sewer collection system from Thompson Drive to Troutburg Cottages. The company will install will install grinder pumps, lateral connections and abandon septic tanks at each residence.

Rochester Pipeline Inc. is the low bidder at $5,380,730 to construct three sewer pump stations, and install sewer force main and gravity sewer from Troutburg Cottages to the sewer connection point in Hamlin. The three sewer pump stations will be near Lomond Shores/West Kendall Road, Troutburg Cottages and Hamlin Beach State Park entrance off Moscow Road.

Kendall Town Supervisor Tony Cammarata said the “blue ribbon project” includes many different entities, including the two towns, counties of Orleans and Monroe, Monroe County Pure Water, the state parks system, and many other entities.

A section of Thompson Drive at the western end of Kendall was eaten up by Lake Ontario in the spring 2017. This photo was taken on May 7, 2017.

The cost was significantly higher than the initial $9 million earmarked for the project in 2019. The state offered to pay 95 percent of the cost through the REDI Commission, which was established with $300 million for projects along the south shore of Lake Ontario.

Kendall and Hamlin were able to get about $4 million more from the state towards the project, and access other grants to bring the project to an affordable costs for residents.

“This is a win for everybody,” he said.

Kendall and Hamlin officials will join dignitaries on Thursday for an 11 a.m. ground-breaking at the Lake View Park on Thompson Drive for the sewer project. Kendall used REDI funds to create a small town park at Thompson Drive. This area saw chunks of land eroded from the high lake waters in 2017 and 2019.

Many of the septic systems along the 15-mile project have septic systems vulnerable to high waters that could erode land for septic. The project will disconnect homes from the septic systems and connect them to a wastewater system.

Besides the 15 miles of force main via horizontal directional drilling, the project includes 3,431 feet of gravity sewer via open trenching, and approximately 5 miles of sewer laterals to private residences via open trenching.

This map from LaBella Associates shows the project area in Kendall and Hamlin.