The Charleston Sanitary Board is overseeing its next capital improvement project to update the city's aging sewer lines in the Corridor G and Southridge areas.
The Hickory Hollow Sewer Replacement and Kimberly Road/Oakhurst Drive area Sewer Rehabilitation projects have a combined $1.7 million price tag.
The work is being paid for internally by the sanitary board, said Operations Manager Tim Haapala, rather than through low-interest loans or bonds.
The bulk of those funds are going toward the Hickory Hollow project, which will replace nearly all of the existing sewer lines that begin around Stone Road in South Hills and run down the mountain along Ferry Branch creek before ending at the pump station near the Kanawha River.
Haapala said that sewer line is in sore need of replacement.
"There's sections of the line laid on the ground that have been exposed to the elements and cracked," he said. "We've had to make Band-Aid repairs over the years."
Fallen trees, roots and other issues have led to cracks and breaks in the existing line over time.
Excavators recently began clearing trees, logs and brush from the hillside next to U.S. 119, just south of the intersection with MacCorkle Avenue.
"The first step is clearing the right-of-way and pulling the [trees] and stumps out to be able to dig and put the pipeline in," Haapala said.
The existing vitrified clay pipes will be replaced with plastic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes.
The Hickory Hollow project will install 6,400 feet of new pipe, ranging from 10 to 18 inches in diameter.
Another 2,300 feet of specialized pipe liner will be installed in areas where the existing pipe is intact.
Fifty new manhole structures will be added along the new line, Haapala said.
Work on the new line will begin at the low point, near Corridor G, and work its way uphill.
"As they come across customer connections or existing parts of the system, they can reconnect it back into the new pipeline," Haapala said.
Mike Enyart and Sons, Inc. is completing the work under a 230-day contract with the sewer board.
The other project concerns the Kimberly and Oakhurst Road areas, where new lining for the pipes and existing manholes will be installed.
The work will begin around Terry Road, near Buffalo Wild Wings, and run along Kimberly and Oakhurst roads down through Davis Creek.
Over the years, hydrogen sulfide gas, created through fermenting waste, has accumulated in and corroded those pipes and manholes.
"We have scenarios where sewage doesn't move through the lines quick enough. You have sewage that sits at the pump station fermenting, [with] microbes that grow and generate hydrogen sulfide," Haapala said.
The sewer lines in question carry all the waste from the businesses, churches, schools and restaurants in the Southridge area.
Haapala said workers will be installing a polymer foam liner to protect those pipelines, then reinstating the interior of the manholes to prevent further corrosion from the gases.
That project, as well as the Hickory Hollow project, are being completed under the same contract.
Reach Elaina Sauber at
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