{"id":228679,"date":"2016-04-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/water-pipes-are-being-fixed-under-our-streets\/"},"modified":"2016-04-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T07:00:00","slug":"water-pipes-are-being-fixed-under-our-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/water-pipes-are-being-fixed-under-our-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Water pipes are being fixed under our streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Doug Curlee | Editor at Large<\/p>\n

You may not even know it\u2019s happening<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seldom does a week go by without news of yet another water or sewer pipe failure somewhere in San Diego.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a $4.2 million project going on in the Del Cerro-Allied Gardens area right now, working to see that doesn\u2019t happen. It\u2019s one of many such jobs being done, or in the planning stage citywide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of areas around San Diego where this needs to be done. It\u2019s well-known that there are many miles of very old pipe under our streets,\u201d said resident engineer Neda Shahrara while watching over a work crew fixing pipes on the corner of Lance Way and Bounty Street in Allied Gardens. \u201cToo many pipes are failing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"April<\/a>
A work crew fixes an underground pipe from above ground in Allied Gardens. (Photo by Monica Mu\u00f1oz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the most part, it turns out that the failed pipe is an old \u2014 often very old \u2014 corrugated steel pipe that\u2019s been in the ground for 50 years or more. They are old. They corrode. They simply come apart, necessitating an expensive, time-consuming, street-damaging excavation to replace the pipe with PVC plastic pipe that has a longer life.<\/p>\n

It takes a lot of time and work to get all that done.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t always need to be that way. Often, those old pipes can be rehabilitated by a relining process. It\u2019s done with new, non-metal pipe inserted into the old pipe. A resin is injected around the new pipe, binding it to the old pipe. The resin is hardened by hot water or steam.<\/p>\n

When it cools, you see that it\u2019s firmly attached to the inside of the old pipe, completely sealing any possible leaks or breaks in the pipe before it has a chance to cause major trouble.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a lot cheaper than digging up the street and replacing the old pipe, and lot less damaging to the streets.<\/p>\n

The fix is done without the need for a full work crew, backhoes, shovels, jackhammers and whatever else would be needed to create a great big hole in a street that may never be as good of a street as it was before the pipe replacement. Two men were doing the job at the Allied Gardens site, with the aid of their underground television camera to show them what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

If this sounds familiar to you, it should.<\/p>\n

\"Doug<\/a>
Doug Curlee looks at a pipe inspection monitoring device. (Photo by Monica Mu\u00f1oz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s exactly the sort of fix being implemented in Flint, Michigan, where lead from old pipes disastrously poisoned the city water supply, leading to lead poisoning of people who had to drink that water. There are other cities around America looking at the same kind of problem, and at least thinking about the same sort of solution.<\/p>\n

There is no indication we\u2019re facing any sort of Flint problem in terms of water quality. Ours is the simple problem of age-old infrastructure that\u2019s way past its expiration date.<\/p>\n

The relining process can be used for any size pipe that needs it. It\u2019s valid for pretty much any size pipe that needs care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s workable for pipes from the size of these all the way up to huge 100-inch pipes used to transfer water from reservoirs to other reservoirs, or on jobs like the state water project,\u201d Shahrara said.<\/p>\n

The philosophy is simple.<\/p>\n

Find the little problems and fix them before they become great big problems.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another water problem we\u2019ve been keeping an eye on as well. That would be the January sinkhole on the edge of Interstate 8 near College Avenue. It\u2019s not the first Caltrans sinkhole we\u2019ve seen, and it probably won\u2019t be the last. To a degree, Caltrans has the same problem with older metal pipe that San Diego has, but not as advanced yet.<\/p>\n

The January sinkhole was fixed quickly, and Caltrans spokesman Ed Cartagena points out there isn\u2019t generally as much demand on the Caltrans freeway drainage system as there is on San Diego\u2019s pipelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pipes don\u2019t get water flow unless it\u2019s raining, where the city\u2019s pipes are in use constantly. We are always checking our systems to make sure they\u2019ll work when they need to. So far, we\u2019re not thinking about relining our pipes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caltrans has plenty of systems to keep an eye on. In District 11, which is basically the San Diego area, there are 18,000 smaller pipes that feed into the bigger main disposal pipes \u2014 all 10,000 of them.<\/p>\n

That keeps Caltrans\u2019 pipe crews busy enough.<\/p>\n

\u2014Doug Curlee is Editor at Large. Reach him at doug@sdcnn.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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