Editor’s note: Click on the video to see the sewer-lining process.
By Bonnie Culverhouse
Some Minden residents are receiving an upgrade to their sewer system that uses a relatively simple but potentially life-changing, money-saving technique.
Thanks to a $1.2 million Louisiana Community Development Block Grant, City of Minden has hired Florence, Miss.-based Suncoast Infrastructure Inc. to use a Cured In Place Pipe (CIPP) liner inside some of the old clay lines.
Three weeks into the project, a Suncoast crew worked on Church Street (Minden City District A) Wednesday between East Union and Mignon.
Foreman Jason Middleton said the process – depending on the length of the street – may take around six hours.
“A truck with a camera sets up on the (man) hole,”Middleton said, pointing to the street beside St. Rest Baptist Church. “That’s the upstream. Then there will be one down there (pointing where Church ‘tees’ with Mignon). That’s the downstream.”
The crewman downstream uses a hose to clean the inside of the clay pipe. A camera follows the hose back to Mignon to ensure the pipe is clean, while marking services to each of the seven residences on Church Street.
Once the pipe is clean, another truck brings the liner while a third one has the ability to “cure” or “cook” it, in this case with steam.
When the liner is installed, service to the residences is temporarily, blocked, Middleton said.
“We give the residents a notice that explains what we’re doing,” he said. “We aren’t doing anything to their water, but they can’t use a lot of water until the process is finished.”
Many of Minden’s older neighborhoods have clay pipes, which have joints every five feet.
“Roots grow into it, dirt gets in it … that’s what the City is trying to stop … infiltration,” said Middleton. “After we line it, there are no joints. It goes from manhole to manhole.”
The clay pipe on Church Street is 8 inches in diameter, around three-quarters inch thick and 173 feet long.
The liner is delivered in a truck that keeps it around 28 degrees.
“When we get the lining in, it takes about 30 minutes for it to get up to temperature,” Middleton said. “It’s got to be 130 degrees before what we call a ‘hold time.’ We’ll hold this line (Church Street) around an hour and a half, so that’s about two hours of ‘cook’ time, then we’ll cool it down to 99 degrees.”
On Church Street, there are several residences that required sending a tool down the pipe to cut an entrance back into service.
While it takes manpower for the heavy lifting, a lot of the guesswork is removed by the camera truck which has an intricate computer system that directs the process of cleaning the pipes, removing any protrusions that would interfere with the lining and marks places where service lines will be cut. Once that is done, a camera travels the length of the pipe again checking for any issues. A post video is then sent to the City of Minden and its engineer to sign off on the project.
Middleton said cost of the truck is around $750,000 fully loaded.
When Suncoast is finished, “it’s like getting a new sewer,” said Public Works Director Tyler Wallace.
Suncoast’s bid for the project, which includes around 16,000 feet of pipe for all affected streets, was $1.32 million. Minden City Council amended the budget to help cover the $116,000 difference.
“Some of the sewer lines go under the roads, which would mean digging up and replacing the road in those places,” Mayor Nick Cox said. “That would take a lot longer and mean the cost to repair the streets and pave or overlay.”
*According to the Suncoast Infrastructure’s website, liners are made of 100 percent epoxy lining products, hybrid cements and geopolymer structural lining products by Vortex Companies, the Aegis™ System of polyurea and polyurethane coatings by Nukote Coatings International, and Triplex® Liner system cured-in-place fiberglass system by McNeil Technologies.
