SAUGUS — Town Manager Scott Crabtree has announced that work will soon start to improve the town’s sewer system.

Crabtree said in a press release that a contract has been awarded to National Water Main Cleaning, which will perform rehabilitative work on sewer subsystem 3A.

Subsystem 3A; which runs to the north from Walmart on Route 1, south from the Middle/High School, west from Forest Street, and east from Vine Street; will have excess water inflow and infiltration (I&I) removed. 

The newly announced project will entail the cleaning and lining of 15,000 feet of sewer piping.

Excess water can get in the sewer system, which the release said is not ideal for the pipes and can cause sewage overflows, which can drain the town of funds and resources.

Crabtree is looking to maintain positive momentum on the town’s sewer-rehabilitation projects. He said that previous projects have been successful and that the town has come a long way. He noted that in the previous administration, raw sewage was being dispersed into the Saugus River.

Since signing an administrative consent order in 2005, the town has worked with engineering consulting firm CDM Smith. The town and CDM Smith identified nine sewer subsystems that required improvements.

“The town has maintained this positive momentum by rehabilitating more sewer subsystems that were also identified in the study to remove I&I sources,” the release stated.

The work on subsystem 3A is anticipated to last six months, beginning sometime this month and ceasing once the weather gets too cold. The work would then resume in the spring and could potentially continue into June.

“It’s important the town maintain its commitment to sewer-infrastructure upgrades to ease the burden that excess inflow and infiltration places on our aging sewer system,” Crabtree said in the release.

Work on the Route 1 portion of the subsystem will be done overnight, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. It is expected that the work will impact traffic elsewhere in town.

Residents with any questions about the work should contact the Department of Public Works at 781-231-4143.