ROGERS — Rogers Water Utility staff will spend the next several months hunting down problematic sewer lines as part of the utility’s effort to fix lines before they fail.
The workers will use cameras to evaluate the city’s older sewer lines, and compile that information into a plan to tackle the worst lines first, said Mark Johnson, utility engineer.
It could be five or six months before the survey is complete, Johnson said.
Johnson gave a report on the effort at the Monday meeting of the Rogers Waterworks and Sewer Commission.
There are about 95 miles of sewer to be examined, said Tom McAlister, manager of the utility.
Johnson said not all of that will have to be replaced. Some of it will be fine, and some of it can be repaired, he said. He said it is too soon to say how much the replacement and repairs may cost.
McAlister said $70 million would not be too high a guess.
The city has an aging sewer system, much of it concrete and clay.
Concrete, unbeknownst to the people who originally installed the pipes, can decay because of sewage gasses, McAlister said.
A concrete sewer line on Seventh Street collapsed in November. Further inspection found that the connecting concrete sewer main on Poplar Street was in bad condition.
Some parts of the line did not even have visible pipe, just dirt, Johnson said.
The commission approved a $166,618 bid Monday from Seven Valleys Construction Company to replace the line.
Johnson said the line’s collapse in the early stages of the utility’s evaluation of the sewer system was a coincidence.
Travis Greene, chairman of the commission, said the slow down in the Rogers’ growth means the utility can focus on repairs instead of building new infrastructure.
The utility has records of sewer lines built in 1924, Johnson said. He said there are probably even older lines for which there are no records.
But one of the first areas to get attention would probably be the 1951 project that included the Poplar Street and Seventh Street lines now being replaced, Johnson said.
Johnson said the typical life span for sewer lines is 50 years.
Planned repairs are much cheaper than emergency than emergency repairs, Johnson said in a memo to McAlister.