Around 50 locations throughout Park City and the Snyderville Basin will get new sewer lines this summer. Water district Executive Director Mike Luers said the new pipes will be installed inside the old ones, a technique developed in Europe.
“It's called cured-in-place pipe, which requires really no digging,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour.” “So we take a flexible material, it's kind of like a fiberglass pipe, and we insert it into the existing sewer line, and either we blow it up or we fill it up with water, and then we heat it up and it sets the new pipe inside the old pipe.”
Luers said the whole process takes about two days.
Residents who will be affected will be notified 48 hours in advance. For those impacted, Luers said residents cannot use water for a short period of time while the new pipe is connected to their system. However, he said the inconvenience is much shorter than if the street had to be dug up.
The new pipe liners also last a long time and are cost-effective.
“These liners are designed to replace the existing pipe, so they have [a] 75 to 100-year life,” Luers said. “And actually, while this project involves 50 locations and costs about $1.2 million, it's actually far less expensive than having to dig everything up.”
Many of the old pipes were installed in the 70s, he said. They are concrete, which is no longer permitted for wastewater lines. Luers said that’s because sewer gases form hydrogen sulfide gas, which turns into sulfuric acid. The acid then eats away at concrete pipes.
Luers said the new liners are thin and will allow for the same sewage capacity.
