Construction on a project to add sewer infrastructure in Seymour finally will begin this fall after significant delays.

The $15.5 million Southeast Sanitary Sewer Interceptor project was first proposed in early 2013 by Mayor Craig Luedeman and sewer utility director Randy Hamilton as a way to ease sewer capacity issues and open up an area of the city for future residential and commercial growth.

Luedeman had hoped construction would start in 2015, but the project ran into roadblocks during the property acquisition phase. Progress was halted while those problems were resolved in court.

Because of the delays, the city diverted around $1.5 million of the bond money for the project to add a sewer lift station on the east side of the Eastside Industrial Park.

On Monday, the Seymour Redevelopment Commission agreed to issue up to $3.5 million in bonds to cover the remainder of the cost of the sewer project. Those bonds are to be paid back over the next 20 years from tax increment finance revenues.

The Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety and Seymour City Council approved the original $15.5 million sewage works revenue bonds in 2014 to pay for the improvements to the sanitary sewer collection system. Those bonds are to be paid back from the city’s sewer utility fund.

On Thursday, the board of works accepted a bid of $11.5 million from Atlas Excavating of West Lafayette to construct the new sewer system and a $1.8 million bid through an electronic auction from Ferguson Waterworks of Louisville, Kentucky, for materials for the project.

The new 60-inch sanitary sewer line will intercept and divert sewage flow from East Tipton Street, taking it south along Sandy Branch Creek to a regional lift station at East County Road 340N, allowing the city to discontinue the use of several existing lift stations.

Sewage flow would then continue through a proposed force main from the lift station west toward South Walnut Street on its way to connecting with an existing line that would carry it to the city’s water pollution control plant.

Currently, the city has a self-imposed sewer ban in the affected area, meaning no new sewer hookups are being allowed east of Burkart Boulevard at this time. That ban will end once the project is complete, Hamilton said.

Although Luedeman thought construction could begin in August or September, Rick Steward, assistant sewer utility director, said it likely won’t be until October.

The project will take 18 months to complete, giving it a spring 2020 deadline.