Integrated Infrastructure Transformation: Leveraging Multi-Departmental Goals for Efficient Urban Improvements

The Spring Hill Sewer Separation and Streetscapes Phase 1 project, located in Somerville, MA, was initially programmed as a straightforward sewer separation project. It is one of the five key projects in the City of Somerville’s Union Square Stormwater Mitigation Program designed to reduce the risk associated with aging infrastructure, solve existing system deficiencies, achieve regulatory compliance, and create system capacity to accommodate planned development. The underground challenges of separating 65 acres of 100-year-old combined sewers cause a significant impact on a residential neighborhood. Recognizing this early, the City pushed to incorporate many multi-departmental goals, including green stormwater infrastructure, renewal of an aging water distribution system, safer streets through multi-modal infrastructure improvements, increase to the urban forest canopy, as well as critical third party utility upgrades. By starting the community engagement and inter-departmental coordination process early in the planning phase of a project and returning to that coordination at multiple junctures throughout design and construction, the City of Somerville was able to achieve the initial goal of the project to remove clean stormwater from the combined sewer system and mitigate downstream flooding in Union Square while also achieving many of the aforementioned City goals within the neighborhood.