Pierce County street to close for two weeks for sewer maintenance
Sections of Ainsworth Avenue South in the Parkland area will be impacted by ongoing sewer construction for approximately two weeks starting Wednesday.
According to a press release from Pierce County, through traffic will not be allowed to travel through the stretch on Ainsworth starting from 116th Street South and ending on Garfield Street South. Residents and emergency vehicles will be allowed to travel along that portion of the construction route. The stretch from Garfield Street South to Tule Lake Road South will be closed entirely to the public during the two-week period. Crews will install about 200 feet of a 72-inch pipe and a maintenance hole. Pierce County Spokesperson Jenny Burger shared with The News Tribune Tuesday that the roads will reopen by July 1.
The county suggests a detour route on the opposite side of 116th Street South, down Spanaway Loop Road South, and onto Tule Lake Road South.
This closure is for the preparation of the fifth phase in a broader sewer-construction project which will “increase the capacity” for the Parkland/Brookdale Sewer Interceptor. A sewer interceptor is a major sewer line which receives wastewater from other collection lines. The combined flow then goes to either a wastewater treatment facility or another interceptor. Specifically, the Parkland/Brookdale Sewer Interceptor connects much of east Pierce County’s wastewater system to the Chambers Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Phase 5 will result in a new 72-inch interceptor pipeline through the sewer easements on Franklin Pierce School District and Pacific Lutheran University property. Following the reopening of the road, construction will continue across Washington High School and Keithley Middle School, installing another 600 feet of pipe along the western end of PLU by November. The complete construction of this phase will cost approximately $13 million from the county’s Sewer Utility Fund.
Eventually, Phase 6, which is projected to start in summer 2028, will see the construction of another 72-inch pipe connecting the pipe from phase 5 to the pipe constructed in phase 3 back in 2023. According to Burger, Phase 6 is currently still under design.
The previous 36- and 42-inch concrete sewer interceptor had declined in quality due to hydrogen sulfide corrosion, “a type of a gas released from wastewater traveling through the pipes.” To prevent corrosion in the future, the new 72-inch pipe will be made from corrosion-resistant materials, such as high-density polyethylene.
With construction beginning in 2001, the Parkland/Brookdale Sewer Interceptor will replace the original pipeline constructed in the 1980s as part of Utility Local Improvement District projects that were appropriate for property needs at the time of construction. Now, almost 40 years later, these pipes are nearing the end of their “useful service life.” Constructed over the past 20 years, this new pipeline will help collect wastewater across unincorporated Pierce County, from areas south of 112th Street East between the eastern boundary of Joint Base Lewis-McChord and the plateau west of the Orting Valley.
The interceptor starts at the intersection of 13th Avenue Court East and Brookdale Road East and will eventually be connected northward to the Spanaway Loop Bypass Interceptor at the intersection of 116th Street South and Spanaway Loop Road South.
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