The Boothbay Harbor Sewer District held a public hearing on Jan. 7 on replacing a sewer line running from the Route 27 and Route 96 intersection to Simmons Trailer Park and to extend lines to Eastern Avenue. District trustees James Stormont, Deryl Kipp and Sam Morris voted unanimously to approve the estimated $800,000 project and to authorize Superintendent Chris Higgins to apply for a USDA Rural Development grant for the project’s funding.

The project will put about 2,800 feet of eight-inch diameter pipe in the ground, an upgrade from six-inch diameter pipes, which proved too small for adequate maintenance. The project also replaces three manholes and allows for four more to be installed along the route, partly for maintenance access to Montgomery Road lines.

“We usually install manholes every 300 feet,” said Higgins. “However, when there are changes in direction or elevation there needs to be a manhole.”

The extension of sewer access to Eastern Avenue also allows for the pickup of several properties left out of a 2001 project, Higgins said. And the end of the line will be designed to take further expansion toward East Boothbay should the need arise.

The replacement is highly necessary, said Higgins, who noted the lines were installed in the late 1960s in a “substandard way,” with several deformities in the lines, making it difficult to service the pipes which have been high maintenance over the years.

Higgins hopes the timeline will work out to be a spring bid for construction with a fall construction start.

Said Higgins, “We’ve already drilled every 50 feet to check for ledge and there was nothing until we got fairly deep … As far as jobs go, this should be pretty quick and easy.”