Even though Main Street residents near Cahill Elementary School did not lose sewer service when a line collapsed recently, Mike Marino, wastewater department superintendent, said it’ll happen again if some of the aging village sewer lines aren’t relined or replaced.
Marino was standing next to a trench last Monday morning, August 29 while the village’s Department of Public Works workers and the town highway department finished replacing the crushed line. Marino said a camera sent into the line had shown a number of cracks in the line that runs up the road toward Partition Street. Most of the pipes along the Main Street line which only had cracks they could be relined, he said, much as many of the older lines were two years ago.
Most of the village pipes are clay, installed in the early twentieth century or even before then. A company that specializes in the work can slide a cement sleeve into the existing pipe and expand it. When the sleeve dries, it’s good for another hundred years.
When a pipe collapses, however, the road has to be dug up and a new pipe installed, Marino said, pointing to some broken pieces of clay pipe in the trench,
Mayor William Murphy, several village trustees and Marino are in the process of coming up with a plan to replace or reline the sewer line that runs from Partition Street to Lighthouse Drive. They figure that will solve the problem of the cracked lines without busting the village budget. Murphy hopes to present suggestions for the trustees to consider by their September 6 meeting.