National Engineers Week: Past, Present, and Future

The St. Helens Engineering Division is working on dozens of projects at any given time – but what have they been up to lately? What’s coming down the pipeline? Let’s look at their accomplishments over the past year, ongoing projects, and what's on the horizon for the City of St. Helens!

2021 was another busy year for the Engineering Division. Here are just a few examples of what they accomplished:

• Over 6,000 square feet of asphalt trench patching were installed across the City.
• Updated sport courts were installed at Campbell Park as part of the Campbell Park Improvement Project.
• Updates were completed for sidewalks on North Vernonia Road.
• Over 214,000 linear feet of annual pavement stripes were painted as part of annual maintenance.
• Existing storm drainpipes were taken out of commission from Milton Way from Columbia Boulevard to St. Helens Street by filling them with a flowable concrete cement mixture. (This is done to prevent possible deterioration of the roadway that can come from empty, broken pipes.)
• Replaced a failing stormwater structure in the parking lot of the Wastewater Treatment Plant.
• Completed ADA curb ramp improvements to existing ramps across the City.
• New private developments such as Grocery Outlet, new Veterinarian office on Columbia Boulevard, Control Solutions on McNulty Way, and Brayden Street Storage.

Several other projects began or are continuing throughout 2022. New and ongoing projects include standard maintenance, new updates to infrastructure, and larger projects on the horizon.

• The Engineering Division will continue to replace water mains on Tualatin Street, Little Street, North Seventh Street, and Deer Island Road.
• The Water Master Plan is currently underway
• Continuing upkeep across the City including the Paving Overlay project, water main replacements, sanitary sewer replacement, drainage improvements, and more.
• A sewer replacement project at South Third Street, Tualatin Street, and Lee Street is currently in the design phase.
• A Mercury Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) Implementation Plan for the Willamette River Watershed is currently in development.
  • This project stems from February 2021, when the City was listed as a new Designated Management Agency in the Willamette Basin Water Quality Management Plan. The Willamette Basin Water Quality Management Plan is overseen by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. This means that the City is responsible for cleaning and preventing pollutants in Milton Creek and McNulty Creek. The City is required to submit a TMDL Implementation Plan to the Department of Environmental Quality and begin implementation of the plan based on the Willamette Basin Water Quality Management Plan schedule. The City will implement measures to reduce stormwater impacts and reduce the pollutants from sources in the Willamette Basin. This will include applying pollution prevention and good housekeeping strategies as part of municipal operations; performing public education and outreach to promote the proper understanding of water quality issues; encouraging public involvement; creating an Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination program to manage; developing procedures to regulate construction site runoff; and developing, implementing, and enforcing a program to reduce discharges of pollutants and control post-construction stormwater runoff from new development and redevelopment project sites.

This is just a small portion of everything going on at the Engineering Division! There are lots of other projects on the way - keep an eye out for future announcements as more plans finalize throughout the year.