EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville Public Works Department contracted Visu-Sewer of East St. Louis to repair a "sewer emergency" discovered Dec. 8, 2016. On Wednesday, Jan. 18, Visu-Sewer repaired and finished the job.
Repairing the sewer line with that method cost the city $17,262. Work began in the early morning hours of Wednesday, and was finished between five and six hours later. Zwijack said the city contracted Visu-Sewer of East St. Louis to do the job.
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The issue was discovered during inspection of Schwarz Street prior to the street's scheduled resurfacing. Edwardsville City Engineer Ryan Zwijack said the public works department discovered a section of pipe, which was essentially broken, under the street near its intersection with Main Street. Zwijack said the situation was not a public danger, but was an emergency for the sewer.
After the discovery of the broken pipe, Zwijack said the city discussed either excavating the area for a full repair or utilizing a cured-in-place liner for the area. Due to cost of excavation and the high traffic of that intersection, Zwijack said a cured-in-place liner would be the best option.
"It's better than the four days it would have taken to excavate down to it and close the intersection," Zwijack said. "It was definitely the best way to go for this intersection and the motorists who use it."
Cured-in-place liners are being used increasingly for sewage issues, Zwijack said. The technology was innovated in the late 1970s and was put into public use in 1994, but is just now cost-efficient enough for regular use. When the technology was first being implemented, Zwijack said only one or two companies would do it. Currently, several offer it.
Several other locations in Edwardsville are going to receive similar treatments over the rest of 2017, but this case in particular was an emergency situation, Zwijack said. He said he hopes to get an annual program of sewer lining work done in the future to maintain the city's sewage system. In some cases, that piping is more than a century old.
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