Repairs on a sewer pipe in Louisville, Ky., are now complete eight months after corrosive sewer gases were found eating away the pipe’s concrete lining. According to 89.3 WFPL, the sewer pipe carries about 40% of Jefferson County’s wastewater.
Tony Parrott, Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) Executive Director, said crews have fixed the pipe despite setbacks.
“We were able to stay pretty much on schedule. We said that we were going to be wrapping up toward the end of November, early December. So here we are, the lining work has been completed and our contractors are demobilizing,” Parrott said to 89.3 WFPL.
Sewer officials discovered the gases had eaten away the concrete lining of the pipe back in April, according to 89.3 WFPL.
Workers had to tear up part of Main Street in Downtown Louisville to fix it. This created problems for commuters and business owners in the area. According to Parrott, things got worse in the summer when workers discovered a large void underneath Main Street.
“When we started the work in August, we actually had an enormous void under Main Street. It was about 50-foot wide, 60-foot long, 25-foot deep void,” Parrott said to 89.3 WFPL.
Sewer officials limited traffic to one lane along parts of Main Street for a time. According to 89.3 WFPL, the repair is one of many that MSD has planned to stop polluting Louisville’s waterways with overflows from the city’s aging sewer system. The city has until 2024 to comply with a federal consent decree mandating the repairs, according to 89.3 WFPL.
The city plans to prevent overflows through the construction of the Waterway Protection Tunnel, a massive underground tunnel that will extend four miles under the city and hold up to 55 million gal of sewage and storm water.