Sewer Fix Has Heads Pounding
Maria Thi Mai
The collapse of the Portland's 100-year-old sewer underscores our need to invest in maintenance before we have a collapse. Last fall, the 100-year-old Woods Line brick sewer collapsed. Click here to read what Anna Johns of the Tribune has to say about it.
BES quickly moved into action with setting up a system of pumps to divert about 20 million gallons of sewage a day around the collapsed section of pipe. The City had to then scurry around the country renting pumps and pipe at the same time hurricane Katrina recovery efforts and other projects were competing for the same equipment. Luckily, Environmental Services got the equipment it needed and stopped any further pipe collapses and prevented sewage from entering houses in the Lair hill area, during one of the wettest Januaries on record, but at no small price.
In April, Environmental Services will begin replacing the old Woods Gulch sewer pipe, which will eliminate eleven of the 15 pumps used to divert sewage around the collapsed section. The first construction will be a two block pipeline around SW 1st and Grover and modifications to the above ground pipes in the neighborhood.
A separate contract will begin in May to begin tunneling a new pipe under I-5 to above Naito Parkway. This work will be complete in late 2006 barring no more surprises. Underground obstruction made choosing a route for the new sewer pipe very challenging. Four old bridges that once crossed Woods Gulch were buried to build I-5 and Naito Parkway. Hitting a bridge with a tunnel boring machine under I-5 would stall the project for months.
Neighbors can expect public meetings and information to arrive on their door steps in the next couple of weeks - followed by a new pipeline that should last another 100 years.
Posted by Maria Thi Mai on March 3, 2006
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Filed Under Environmental Services, Livability & Environment, News, Southwest Portland
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