The Bloomington City Council voted unanimously to approve a contract to line two miles of sewage pipes with a corrosion-resistant resin. (WJBC file photo)
BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington City Council has approved a $1.6 million contract for sewer pipe lining.
The project would only address two of the 370 miles of sanitary and combined sewer pipes.
PODCAST: City Manager David Hales talks to WJBC's Red Pitcher.
Kevin Kothe, Bloomington's city engineer, said this is the beginning of a much larger improvement project, where city workers would line many sewage pipes with a resin-saturated tube that is cured with hot water to form a solid, corrosion-resistant lining within the existing pipes.
"This is not invasive. We don't have to dig up the street, we only have to get access through manholes," Kothe said.
Kothe said the many of the pipes are over 100 years old and were built with clay.
"(Clay) works well, but it's also like your ceramic plates at home: it's very brittle. If you drop it, it will shatter," Kothe said. "Likewise, if the sewer gets impacted by something, it can shatter."
Kothe presented several pictures at Monday night's city council meeting that showed how compromised some of the sewer pipes are. Some showed several cracks, others were misshapen.
The contract was approved by a 9-0 vote, and Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner said it was an easy decision to approve the plan.
"Even the Bloomington City Council came to agreement on this," Renner said. "We don't always seem to agree that the sky is blue, but we knew that we need to move ahead, decisively, on this as quickly as possible."
The winning bid for the project was submitted by Hoerr Construction Inc. of Peoria.
Joe Ragusa can be reached at [email protected].
