The saga continues!

So I had a main drain back up a few months ago turned out it was in the city's lateral. They sent a crew to dig up the ROW area and fixed the 6" sewer pipe last month as discussed here:

[www.plbg.com]

But after a few more heavy rain, the edge of the road cracked and the soil crumbled. I called them again and got bounced around the earth 27 times before someone came out to investigate.

Sent a camera down again and said there is a lot of dirt in the pipe. I said is this new dirt or is this old dirt that settles in the pipe since it was broken and recently fixed but whatever in the line still sit there, he doesn't know.

He got to the spot they made the repair. Said the repair was done with a cast iron sleeve. I have never heard of that. A CI sleeve to fix a break in a 6" SDR PVC pipe?

As the camera went forward, I saw transitions from PVC to CI, CI to PVC, PVC to C(, CI to PVC like 5 times so this has been patched multiple times, and this sewer was put in service in 2008, when everyone went from septic to city sewers.

Then he found another break in the pipe, on a CI section. This time it is under the road so they have to cut it open.









Estimated 3 months before they can get to it.

Unreal. Wow, what you've gone through and what the City has done, etc. This is writing a book material. Thanks so much for sharing all of this.

I don't know why the pipe has so many breaks, it is clearly been repaired many times and not an old pipe, but 2008?

What is an cast iron sleeve? Is it like a Fernco but in cast iron? Seems odd to be mending a PVC pipe with a cast iron. From the camera it looks like there is a gap in the PVC and the cast iron bridges the gap, can't tell the distance but may be 6 inches or more. Which leads me to believe if they cut out a 6' section of PVC they put back a 5' section, intentionally? and installed two of these cast iron sleeves and that's how I can see these from inside the pipe.

Does this look like a pipe break to you all?



There is a "GAP" and water is rushing into the pipe. He said it's a break. I said it looks like a separation but it could be a fitting may be it's my neighbor's line?

I now think last time they came out they may have actually broke the pipe during the digging and didn't know it, and then they repaired their own damage thinking it was the break. Who knows.

I said to him that if he waits 3 months then he needs to come spray paint all this because this paint will wear out completely in a month.



Edited 1 times.

If the road cracked and the edge is crumbling since the last repair, and there are multiple repairs on that pipe, then it sounds like the gravel base under the road is washing out or shifting and allowing too much pressure to be put on the pipe. Maybe overweight trucks are using the road and putting more weight on the base than it was designed for. Could be a sinkhole underneath...

Since the road needs to be dug up, sounds like the right repair is a bigger hole, replace a long section of pipe and re-bed it with gravel.

I don't know how they did the repair because I wasn't there. But I did catch the last 20 minutes of that project and saw them finishing up. They had a backhoe pushing some gravel back into the trench and the bad pipe with the hole was laying by the side. There was no compaction of ANY kind when they did this. They just filled the hole back up. Bedding the pipe in sand I doubt it.

To me that puncture in the pipe does NOT look like damages from settlement or being driven on. It may have been a new hole punched by the backhoe while they dug. If you go to the "PART II" thread I posted a picture of the bad pipe. I don't know, just seems like they like to just do stuff half way and they get away with stuff that homeowners would not pass inspections for.

Yes, I saw the pic and don't disagree with your assessment.

I guess I will have to wait 3 months and see if they come fix the pipe or not.

Logic says if you are going to cut up the road then replace the entire lateral from main to the city CO at the property line.

I will follow up with PART IV when the time comes.

no one from city engineering inspected the replacement???

Packy, no. They sent a crew of 4. I got back when they were almost done with the backfilling. The utilities service and city engineering are both under the department of public works. I don't think they inspect their own work.