The North Bend Eagle

 

Pictures point out weak spots in sewer system

by Nathan Arneal
Published 5/13/15

The city’s sewer lines have been getting the up-close-and-personal treatment over the past few weeks, and the North Bend City Council got a peek inside at last Tuesday’s meeting.

A company called Trekk has been running a video camera through North Bend sewer lines, looking for weak spots or areas in need of repair. Brent Anderson of PeopleService showed the council pictures from inside the pipes of the problem areas.

He discussed four problem areas that need attention, including near Moser’s Memorial Chapel at 11th and Main, near 12th and Willow and on Catalpa Street near the grade school. In these spots the sewer pipe has caved in and the pipe had been clogged with mud.

“It actually got to a point towards the end of the pipe they couldn’t get the camera any farther because the pipe was collapsed in so bad,”Anderson said.

The fourth spot discussed was a manhole on Locust Street west of the city park. There was no bottom to the manhole and the flow line was gone, making the manhole a trap for sewage sludge. Anderson had already talked to a manhole rehab company who said they could pour a new floor and rehab the walls of the hole for $2,500 at most. Anderson said this is a much cheaper option than digging up and replacing the manhole. He also said the work could be done before Old Setters.

“I just think that’s going to be our cheapest of the major fixes,” Anderson said. “I think on the rest of them we can take these pictures and put them out to bid and try to get some numbers back and see where we go from there.”

The council agreed to proceed with the manhole project and to put the other repair jobs out to bid.

About 11,000 feet of the city’s sewer lines have been video taped and photographed, about a third of the total lines to be inspected. The remaining two-thirds will be done over the next two years. Anderson said the lines were in pretty good shape so far, though he expects to find more problems when some of the older lines are looked at.

“Those are the main four or five areas that we need to address,” he said. “For doing about 11,000 feet of pipe, I don’t think we did bad only finding four or five spots we need too address.”

In other water-related council business, Anderson said it is time to paint the water tower, which is supposed to be done every 10 years. The water tower is 10 years old this year, and Anderson said some people have complained that there’s mold growing around the bottom of the tower.

Anderson had an expert on water tower painting look at North Bend’s tower.

“The acrylic (paint) is thin and it’s starting to wear and show it’s age,” Anderson said. “I had him come out to give a recommendation. Does it need to be done now? Does it need to be done in a year? Could we get another 10 years out of it? He thought within the year we should probably look into (painting).”

Anderson got some bids on cleaning and painting the tower. Council members asked him to also check on using some different colors on the tower, citing Schuyler’s tower that has a green stripe. The bids are good for a year, Anderson said, and he will also ask about different colors.

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