Storm Lake to close College and 3rd Street for sewer project work

Drivers who cross College Avenue and West 3rd Street in Storm Lake will need to find another way for much of April 20-24, when the city closes the intersection for sanitary sewer lift-station work and roadway resurfacing. Temporary traffic control and street and lane closures will affect the busy corner near downtown, adding delays for daily commutes, business access and school-related traffic through the area.

The closure is tied to the larger College Avenue and West 3rd Street lift-station project, which Storm Lake says began in June 2025 and has been aimed at replacing a system that has exceeded its useful life. City officials say the new lift station is intended to prevent service interruptions, increase sewer capacity, reduce maintenance costs and minimize odor around the intersection.

Storm Lake approved a $1.4 million contract with King Construction of Wall Lake for the replacement after the work was first rejected and then rebid. The winning bid came in about 24% above the engineer’s $1.1 million estimate. Tyler Gibbins said at the time that rebidding was unlikely to produce much more savings, and the city planned to cover about $1 million through enterprise funds with the rest coming from sewer reserves.

The project has stayed on the city’s radar for months. In September, officials said it remained on schedule despite wet-soil conditions and equipment delays, and infrastructure engineer Josh Pope said the lift-station projects underway were proceeding favorably and could finish by fall 2026. Later reporting described an $8,700 change order to reroute sewer service at the same College and Third Street site, another sign of the engineering changes that have come with the rebuild.

City officials have directed residents to project updates through the city’s information page, which also points to other wastewater improvements in Storm Lake, including lift-station replacements at Scout Park and Ice House on Vista Drive. For now, the focus is on the College Avenue and West 3rd Street corner, where crews will keep traffic off the work zone while they finish a repair meant to protect sewer service long after the pavement reopens.