In a little more than a year, the groundwork should be laid for more development between Gainesville and Oakwood.

Following the Gainesville City Council’s approval of two construction contracts to Haren Construction Co. and Strickland & Sons Pipeline last week, a sewer expansion necessary to the area’s growth — namely the build out of a mega-development on Mundy Mill Road — will soon be under way.

The $6.1 million project will include the construction of a pump station that will pump more than 3 million gallons of sewage a day from Old Flowery Branch Road to the Flat Creek Water Reclamation Facility, Public Utilities Director Kelly Randall said. "It’s going to expand a little over three times," Randall said.

Included in the construction cost is the installation of approximately 12,000 feet of force main that will transport wastewater from the pump station.

The beefed-up sewer facilities will serve anticipated growth between Oakwood and Gainesville as well as a planned 604-acre subdivision on Mundy Mill Road, Randall said.

Gainesville annexed the property straddling Mundy Mill Road near Mountain View Road in 2004 and approved plans for 1,148 single-family houses, 578 town houses, 460 apartments and more than 1 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space.

When the utilities department started suspecting tighter financial times, Randall announced in February that some planned sewer expansions would have to wait.

Utilities officials spared the Balus Creek expansion, as well as one planned for Thompson Bridge Road and Athens Highway, from the chopping block, however, because they were too far along, Randall said.