Work is underway to replace the South Lakeside sewer main after a decade of problems with a 30-year-old pipe.
“We started running into problems with the existing one,” said Joe Engelberts, the city’s manager of water and waste Wednesday.
“We did get a good life span out of it, but unfortunately it has come to the end of its life.”
The new sewer main is being installed adjacent to the old one, he added.
The existing line had a “belly” in it because it was never installed properly, Engelberts said.
It was a smell issue that first alerted the city there were problems with the sewer main.
When they investigated they found that sanitary was standing in the pipe where it shouldn’t be because it should always be emptying.
Instead, there were some pools in the pipe in sagging areas, that workers maintained every six months by using the city’s vactor truck rodder to clear it out.
“We budgeted to eventually replace the main and that’s what we are doing now.”
The budgeted cost of the project is $240,000. It should be completed about the middle of September, Engelberts said.
