Again faced with emergency repairs to the township’s sewer system after another spill this past August, the Department of Public Works will focus on identifying future problem areas and prioritizing repairs, particularly to the sewer lines along North Post Road.##M:[more]##
On August 6, reported Alex Drummond, the township’s director of Public Works, township Health Officer Bob Hary reported a sewage spill in the area of 95 North Post Road. As a result, the South Post Road pump station was shut down to stop the spill.
“We were hoping we might just have a sewer blockage, but it turned out to be a collapsed pipe,” Drummond said. Drummond said he contacted two contractors the township had used in the past, as well as Oswald Enterprises, to do the cleaning. Oswald arrived on scene, cleaned the line and removed the blockage. Surface water in a nearby stream then began to flow into the sewer line.
Drummond said officials had to think quickly, and decided to divert the stream with 20 feet of 16-inch piping, surrounded by 3-quarter inch clean stone to create a coffer dam to prevent any stream water from entering the sewage line. “The reason for that is we didn’t want to flow out the Duck Pond Road pump station, which is just down the road,” Drummond said, adding that officials were trying to stop the water from entering the pipe.
Workers also began pumping, and by August 7, excavation began on the south side of the stream. When the pipe was exposed, workers found the pipe had rotted from hydrogen sulfide damage.
As repairs were being done to the south side of the stream, officials noted that the north side of the stream also had a collapse. Between August 11 and 12, that side of the stream also needed to be excavated and repaired. It was determined that hydrogen sulfide also destroyed the pipe on that side.
Drummond said New Hope Pipe Lines installed a cured in-place pipe liner to line the inside of the pipe that needed to be replaced to prevent any future collapses. That liner is also resistant to hydrogen sulfide.
This is not the township’s first sewage problem. In April, 2007, the system was damaged as a result of a rainstorm that deluged the entire region. The flooding caused a portion of the sewer system to collapse. A sinkhole on Wallace Road closed the road for several days. Last September, some $96,”000 in contracts for sewer repairs and reconstruction associated with that issue were authorized.
The plan of action now, according to Drummond, is that public works employees will be identifying problem areas, including thoroughly examining the asbestos concrete pipes that cross under the streams, as well as the dropped manholes around town. “We’re going to prioritize the repairs, and take, obviously, the ones that are in the worst shape, and repair those first,” Drummond said.
There are some areas that officials already know need attention, including nine manholes on North Post Road, which he estimated would cost the township about $21,”000. There is also a 1,”700-foot section of the 16-inch line in front of the municipal building that needs about $122,”000 in repairs. Also on North Post Road, near Jacob Drive, there is about 600 feet of a 14-inch pipe that needs to be repaired, estimated at $39,”000. And, again, on North Post Road, there is an 8-inch line that has a small puncture, which Drummond said could be repaired for $3,”900 because there was nothing structurally wrong with it.
The costs associated with the repair at 95 North Post Road are estimated at $91,”208.57. Those costs include overtime costs for township employees. Drummond said he had the problem area manned by a public works employee 24/7 during the repairs. “It’s not a DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) requirement, but I just felt safer having somebody there. I just didn’t want to have any more spills, so we manned it 24 hours.”
Police were also called to the scene for traffic control, and there was one night where an EMS worker was on-duty as a precaution because workers needed to do confined-space entry after hours, he said.
A portion of the funding will be paid through existing capital funding. Another portion will be paid through a larger sewer bond ordinance, which includes a number of sewer-related projects, which is expected to come before council at its meeting on Monday, September 15.
Council members asked whether it was normal for sewer pipes to be damaged by hydrogen sulfide, and Drummond said it was fairly common.
Council President Charles Morgan asked for a report back to council once the areas and priorities have been identified, and Drummond told him the report would probably come before council in November. The process is complicated and involves using video cameras to view the pipes, he explained.
