CUMBERLAND, Md. — The city has entered a design agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the C&O Canal Rewatering Project.
The project, budgeted for this fiscal year, includes excavation, reconstruction and bringing water to roughly a mile of the historic C&O Canal.
Cumberland Director of Engineering Robert Smith said the agreement combines installation of a 78-inch pipeline with the rewatering project.
“This project started in the (1990s),” he said at Tuesday’s Mayor and City Council work session.
“I expect this to be a three- to four-year design permitting phase,” Smith said.
Subsequent construction would add another three or so years to that timeline.
Work will include removal of a 1950s levee and 15 to 20 feet of earth to install the pipeline.
Upon completion, water could flow to Oldtown.
Design cost is estimated at $4,367,290, of which the Corps of Engineers would pay $2,838,739.
The agreement allows Cumberland to offset its $1,528,551 share with $1,318,551 worth of in-kind contributions, which leaves the city’s cost at $210,000.
“We have considerable funding,” Smith said.
At a meeting after the work session, Sen. Ben Cardin’s field representative Robin Summerfield congratulated the council “on reaching this milestone.”
The project is “a big priority (for) a number of us,” he said.
Summerfield credited Smith for his “hard work” on the project.
“It was no easy undertaking,” Summerfield said. “I look forward to the next steps.”
Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss said the design agreement took “years and years of efforts.”
The project is “still a ways away,” he said and added it will be good to see it come to fruition.