ARDMORE, OK - Ardmore city officials say renovations are coming to a troubled portions of wastewater lines that run under a neighborhood in Ardmore. Austin Wright has more.

The project is part of the recovery stimulus contract awarded to Carter County to help make necessary upgrades to outdated equipment. In this case, city officials have chosen to renovate a part of a sewer line that's more than a half century old.

Residents of Sunset Road in Ardmore can see that a major project is just days away from getting underway. Ardmore's assistant utility director Blake Rudd says the project will reinforce hundreds of yards of time aging sewer lines.

"This company came in, they did a study, they did a priority ranking of our basins. We have 14 basins, basin number ten showed to be the worst shape," Rudd says.

Rudd says the project won't be too much of an inconvenience for residents who live off of Myall Road near South Commerce because city workers can get to the sewer line without tearing up neighborhood streets.

"The only time you have to do any excavations on that are the pits, where the bursting material, where the equipment is and any taps," says Rudd.

Officials say most of the project will be paid for by stimulus money. Carter County received $1 million from the $21 million pot awarded to 32 Oklahoma counties. That money will go toward improvements to city properties.

But Rudd says there are strings attached to those funds.

"We actually had to borrow the money in order to get a principal forgiveness. First they talked around 20% of forgiveness of what we borrowed, it actually turned out to be 30 or a little over."

That means when the project is completed the city of Ardmore will be responsible for a portion of the bill, around $250,000. The rest will be picked up by the state.

Maureen Kalesnik says sewer problems have happened several times in her neighborhood during heavy rains. She's glad that may now be a thing of the past.

"I think it's wonderful. I've lived here for the last forty years, and I'm in the real estate business, and anything we can do to help any of our areas, especially down here on Sunset, I think is wonderful," Kalesnik says.

Officials say the project should take around six months to complete. Stimulus funds will also be used for projects near Wagoner and Norman.