Clinton taking closer look at sewer system
By Randy Bell
A sewer line collapse which created major traffic problems on one of Clinton’s busiest streets last month is the kind of headache the City would like to avoid in the future. And a comprehensive analysis of the sewer system is underway to identify potential trouble spots before they need emergency repairs.
“We have some sewer issues here in town, just due to the age of our infrastructure,” Public Works Director Phillip Lilley said. “Things are always going to break; the ground is always going to shift. Some of these pipes have been in the ground for about forty years.”
Lilley told the Board of Aldermen at their April 5 meeting that, because the breaks are hard to find, the analysis will take at least five months to complete.
“But that’s without looking at every other occurrence that happens,” he said.
Lilley’s goal is to build up his sewer crew, so the workers can be split up, with one group looking for broken lines and the other handling the daily calls his department receives.
The City has been working with WGK Engineers to identify some of the breaks using smoke tests and other techniques. The company is determining which pipes are shallow enough for the City to do the repairs in-house and which will require a contractor, because they’re in deeper and more dangerous locations.
Lilley says some of the work will be easier, thanks to a trenchless infrastructure repair kit the City has purchased.
“Hopefully, some of these lines won’t have to be dug up.”
Instead, they’ll be repaired much like a heart surgeon inserts a stent into a patient’s artery to improve blood flow. City crews can go into a manhole, use a video camera to pinpoint a sewage leak and line the pipe with an epoxy-like material that hardens within four hours.
“It can last up to twenty-five to fifty years,” Lilley said.
A concrete sewer line under Springridge Road near I-20 collapsed last month, forcing lengthy traffic disruptions, as crews used temporary measures to keep sewage from backing up in nearby businesses while digging up the street to replace the broken line.
