An intensive evaluation of two sections of the city sewer grid is about 85 percent complete.

Princeton Water and Wastewater Commission directors were briefed on the status of the project Thursday by consultant Jon Allen, of Hethcoat and Davis, the firm handling the project’s engineering.

Crews from Sani-Tech JetVac Services of Nashville have been working since mid-September to clean and inspect 78,000 linear feet of sewer main in a quadrangle bordered by Hillview Court, Market Street, Skyline Drive and the City-County Park.

Sani-Tech offered a low bid of $276,025 for the project.

The work has thus far been productive, Allen said, noting that several buried or forgotten manholes had been discovered as the work progressed, some even in residents’ lawns, buried under grass.

In his report, Allen said the crew was saving the most high-traffic and hard-to-access areas for last. “More or less, they’ve got the easy part out of the way.”

The purpose of the inspection is to identify sources of stormwater or groundwater inflow and infiltration into the sewer lines.

Once those areas are identified, work can begin to rehabilitate the lines to eliminate those inflow and infiltration problems, which result in the treatment of unnecessary amounts of water at the city’s sewer plant.

The inspection crew runs a remote-controlled camera on wheels through each section of line, manhole to manhole, to evaluate the condition of the line.

Each line is given a weight based on the severity of its problems, Allen said.

Once the inspection is complete, rehabilitation work on the worst areas will begin.

The engineers’ goal is to submit a rehabilitation plan for the two areas, basins V and VI, to the Kentucky Division of Water by the middle of next month.

Once the plans are approved, the rehab phase can be put out for bids.

A bid opening has tentatively been set for Thursday, Dec. 10, with an award date of the following Thursday, Dec. 17, when the board is scheduled to hold its next meeting.

Under the guidelines of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which provided $500,000 for the project, construction must begin by Feb. 12.

“We know what we want to get done for sure, based on what we’ve seen,” said Allen.

In other business:

• Superintendent Joey Anderson reported the commission had a net income of $309,123.80 for the fiscal year to date (July through September).

About $132,000 of that income comes in the form of FEMA reimbursement for the winter ice storm and reimbursement for the commission’s automated meter reading program, as well as other grant revenue.