BROWNSTOWN
Rehabilitation of the high-priority sewers in Brownstown is progressing.
Workers with Insituform Technologies LLC soon will remobilize to continue sliplining manholes and sewer lines.
The town council recently approved a second change order, this time for $19,434.11, bringing the construction budget to $570,244.60. About $10,000 remains in the budget.
The change order covers one manhole that wasn’t needed and the removal of sewer segments that weren’t able to be lined and adding others that could be lined.
Brent Siebenthal, president of Wessler Engineering, said about 710 feet of sewers were removed from this part of the project, but nearly 1,600 feet of previously televised segments were added.
“The goal with this project is to maximize the benefit of the length of the footage of sewers that can be lined using this cured-in-place pipe technology and not throwing money at something that would be fixed better at a more cost-effective or different method,” Siebenthal said.
A cured-in-place pipe is among the trenchless rehabilitation methods used to repair existing pipelines and is one of the most widely used.
Of the segments taken out of the current project, at least six were either 5½ or 5¾ inches, so those were smaller than the pipes being replaced in other sewer lines.
“That’s really pushing the limits of their technology and what they can do without getting their equipment stuck,” Siebenthal said of Insituform.
Another segment, near Woodside Drive off of State Road 135, was found to be all PVC pipe except for a small part. Siebenthal said that will be taken out of the project and be done as a point repair, and another segment in town will be lined.
Scott Hunsucker, superintendent of Brownstown Wastewater Utility, said some of the segments that can’t be lined now eventually will become high-priority projects, but they will require different technology methods.
The grant the town received is for sliplining, which involves using specialized equipment to place a resin liner through a manhole. The liner is pulled through with steam or hot water and expands and conforms to existing pipe, and it forms up like PVC pipe.
Hunsucker also picked out another 2,100 feet of sewers for televising that may be added to the project depending on where the budget lands. That would get into some of the Priority 2 sewers.
“We’re just shy of 20 percent into P2s, and we didn’t figure we would get into any of them,” Hunsucker said of the current work.
Siebenthal said at some point, he will present a change order to amend Wessler’s contract to cover the additional paperwork that has been done and the videos that have been reviewed. He said Office of Community and Rural Affairs funds would be used to cover those fees, which would be around $10,000.