Sani 5 OKs $3-mil rehab of aging Cove Road pump station

The Sanitary District No. 5 of Marin will spend $3.3 million to replace its pump station at Cove Road, pictured here April 17, beginning in spring 2026. The pump station, which serves all of Belvedere, is in need of replacement due to aging infrastructure with its motor-control center and generator, District Manager Tony Rubio said. (Francisco Martinez / The Ark)

The Sanitary District No. 5 of Marin will spend $3.3 million to rehabilitate its Cove Road pump station, with work set to begin in spring 2026.

The district board of directors unanimously approved separate contracts at its April 17 meeting: $2.84 million with Fort Bragg-based Fort Bragg Electric for the construction and $168,889 with San Rafael-based Nute Engineering for construction management. Both contracts include a 10% contingency. Funding will come from the district’s capital reserves, District Manager Tony Rubio said.

Construction is targeted for spring 2026 because it will take up to a year to obtain one of the necessary parts for the upgrade, the motor-control center, estimated to cost $628,000, he said.

The actual work to rehabilitate the station, located at the corner of Cove and Barn roads in Belvedere, will last three to four months.

Nute Engineering, which also designed the project, found that the station’s electrical switchgear and motor-control center exhibited “age-related conditions, which include difficulty in finding replacement parts.” The station was built in 1961 and reconfigured in 1981 to include dry- and wet-weather pumps for respective flows.

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