The Courtland Township project was the culmination of a nearly three-year endeavor to provide sanitary sewer service for two proposed residential developments near Myers Lake. Additional sewer capacity was also provided for a new fire station and a proposed elementary school for Rockford Public Schools.

The Courtland Township project consisted of upgrading six lift stations in the existing sanitary sewer system that surrounds the Brower and Myers chain of lakes. The upgrades included new submersible wasterwater pumps; bases and guide rails; new discharge piping in the wetwells; replacement of the level control floats; the installation of new junction boxes; and minor painting and repair of the existing access hatches.

It had been recommended that the township add miles of new trunk sewer and new lift stations to serve the area and provide for 250 new homes. Not able to accommodate such costly work, the township sought a second evaluation from Williams & Works.

After examining the system’s capacity study, Williams & Works’ engineers concluded that by increasing the pump capacity at six of the ten lift stations, the system could accept the increased flow without further modifications to the gravity lines or forcemains. The project, originally projected to cost more than one million dollars, was completed for approximately $200,000.