At the current rate of sanitary and storm sewer replacement it will take a 1,000 years to complete the entire system underground in Yorkton.
That was the rather dire message Yorkton Council hard Monday from Trent Mandzuk 鈥� Director of Public Works with the City.
The bad news was part of a report on Roslyn Avenue and Bailey Drive Sanitary and Storm Sewer Replacements.
The situation is coming into tighter focus now as the City undertakes a more urgent inspection program, said Mandzuk.
鈥淭he City鈥檚 underground infrastructure inspection program is a relatively new program and still in its development stage. Only a small percentage of the City鈥檚 underground sanitary and storm sewers have been inspected,鈥� he told Council.
In recent years, the City has adopted the National Association of Sewer Service Companies (NASSCO) standards for pipe condition assessment and has employees that are NASSCO certified to conduct closed circuit television (CCTV) inspections.
鈥淏ased on pipe inspections completed to date clay-tile and concrete sewers are the most problematic. These sewer mains are the oldest in the network and are problematic mostly because they are constructed of shorter pipe sections having considerably more pipe joints in comparison to PVC pipe construction used in today鈥檚 construction practice,鈥� said Mandzuk.
Less than 30 percent of the network constructed from these pipe materials has been inspected.
What is being found is that 鈥淎lmost 80 km of clay-tile and concrete pipe have never been looked at since their installation, some of which date back as far as the early 1900s,鈥� said Mandzuk.
So the tender being discussed is a very small ripple when it comes to the overall need, said Mandzuk.
鈥淭his tender was for underground infrastructure improvements including approximately 100 meters of sanitary sewer main and sewer service removal and replacement on Roslyn Avenue between High Street and King Street West, and approximately 130 meters of storm sewer removal and replacement on Bailey Drive between Lincoln Avenue and Wallace Avenue,鈥� he said, adding overall there is some 230 kilometres of pipe underground, or about the same as Yorkton to Regina.
As it stands the two pipes being replaced were selected based on condition assessments using NASSCO standards. Some sections of pipe in these locations have collapsed severely impeding flow.
In years to come the City needs to invest additional resources in inspection and underground rehabilitation programs, to target problematic areas with similar issues, said Mandzuk.
Only one bid was received for this project. Wyonzek Brothers Construction Ltd bid was $477,843.50 (plus taxes).
This project will be funded by Environmental Service鈥檚 Sanitary Sewer Replacement account ($278,200) and Public Work鈥檚 Drainage and Storm Sewer Maintenance account ($346,600) for a total of $624,000 available funds.
Councillor Darcy Zaharia worried that only one tender was received, but added given the urgency of the need, he would support it.
The tender was accepted unanimously.
