Nine mature oak trees along Lomond Boulevard are slated to come down as Shaker Heights pushes ahead with the final leg of an $8.3 million sanitary‑sewer upgrade intended to stop a persistent sanitary‑sewer overflow that threatens basements and local waterways. The move comes after months of field work and unsuccessful trenchless attempts, and it has rallied neighbors who organized a petition and are demanding a deeper review. With dewatering operations already underway, the project has turned a long‑standing street canopy and a high‑priority public‑health fix into a direct clash.
City Lays Out Engineering Case For Open‑Cut Excavation
The city's June 18 project update details why staff concluded that auger‑boring and other trenchless options are not practicable along the Lomond stretch. According to City of Shaker Heights, borings and last summer’s auger work showed the boring head became stuck in Gridley Park in the face of high groundwater and tough soils, and engineers warned that shifting the sewer into the roadway would require extensive utility relocations and roughly a $2.4 million net cost increase. The packet lists the construction contract at about $8.296 million and anticipates a three‑to‑four‑week dewatering phase, about two weeks for tree removal and tree replacement in the fall.
State Forester’s ‘Second Opinion’
An Ohio Department of Natural Resources regional urban forester inspected the nine Lomond oaks on July 8 and concluded that many were in decline and that construction could damage critical root zones, a second opinion reported by Cleveland.com. City staff told the outlet the ODNR assessment was “right in line” with the city’s own arborist review.
Neighbors Press For A Pause And EPA Review
Resident organizer Sheela Das launched a petition urging the city to pause the work and pursue a federal environmental review; the petition had 497 verified signers as of this week, according to Change.org. Petitioners are calling for the release of engineering and geotechnical reports and argue that alternatives, including subterranean equalization options, never got a full public airing. The online campaign has become a rallying point for neighbors who say the tree canopy is a core neighborhood asset that deserves more scrutiny before it is cut.
Costs, Failed Trenchless Work And Why Open‑Cut Was Chosen
City records show contractors began auger boring in the neighborhood in July 2025 and quickly ran into trouble: the auger head became stuck, crews had to excavate to pull it out, and additional borings and dewatering tests signaled the method was not viable. Engineers say the tangle of underground utilities and the high water table made an in‑road open‑cut alignment either impractical or prohibitively risky, so designers shifted to installing the sewer in the tree lawn as the constructable alternative. That choice, city staff say, is aimed at keeping the overall project on schedule and cutting the risk of raw sewage discharges while crews finish the SSO fix.
Federal Review And Regulatory Stakes
Neighbors have pressed the EPA to revisit a categorical exclusion (CATEX) that covers the project, and the U.S. EPA's NEPA database lists a CATEX record and related review documents for the Lynnfield/Lomond SSO work. The city is scheduled to meet with EPA this Thursday about the CATEX, according to Cleveland.com, and residents say an EPA decision is their most direct path to a fuller environmental review that could affect the timeline.
What’s Next
Current work is centered on site prep for dewatering wells, including cataloging and temporarily removing sandstone sidewalks and clearing branches to make way for drilling, according to the city’s weekly construction updates. Dewatering is expected to run for about a month, after which crews would move into open‑cut sewer installation and the removal and replacement of the nine oaks. The city says the removed trees will be replaced in the fall and has posted contact information for public‑works staff in the project packet.
