Sewer Replacement

The Sehome neighborhood, also known as the Historic District in Bellingham, is made up of old Victorian style houses and a vintage vibe. Some of the houses date back up to 50 years old. With these old houses comes something else much older, 100-year-old sewer lines. In 2009 the Sehome neighborhood plan involved replacing the century old sewers with new, better quality sewer lines.
The 2009-2010 Sewer Replacement Program is a plan to replace old sewer mains using trenchless technology. Todd Baker, Senior Construction Inspector in Bellingham, has been a part of the project since the beginning. According to Baker, the city has the sewers inspected with a video camera to show them how damaged the sewers have become over the years. He said some sewer lines have become really rusty while others are jointed together. Jointed sewer lines are the old and less effective way they were built 100 years ago. The Sewer Replacement Program is setting out to weld the pipes together instead of having them jointed together to fix the problems. “Everything gets viewed by the camera and is cleaned out later on,” Baker said.
What is trenchless technology?
Trehcnless technology puts a camera through the drilled manhole to view the damage of the sewer. First, workers install a felt cloth that is coated in resin. After the felt is placed in the sewer line, they fill it with pressurized steam which then activates the resin and creates a pipe inside of the old damaged pipe.
How long construction will go on
The sewer replacement construction has been going on for about four months now. In the Sehome neighborhood, the areas surrounding the corner of Ellis St., Mason St. and E. Maple St. are being the most affected by the construction. According to Baker, those areas have been getting work done for the past four months and are expected to be done within the next few weeks.
If and how are businesses/residents are affected
Christy Marinovich, 28, works at The Bean Stop on E. Maple St. where the sewer replacement has been active. Marinovich said the construction hasn't made the business at the coffee stand better or worse, however, “It does make it inconvenient to pull in and out of the coffee stand,” she said. Marinovich said that she and all the employees are used to the increase in traffic that surrounds the coffee stand due to the construction. “It's not like there's a bad smell or anything, it doesn't really bother us,” she said. “We're just all used to it.”
The construction has been done on the stretch of road from Ellis St. and Lakeway Dr. up to a chunk of Liberty St. and E Maple St. close to Samish Way.. Many businesses and homes are within those boundaries and have been dealing with increased traffic and noise for the past months. Brittni Day, 21, works at Pizza Pipeline on E. Maple St. She said the construction has made it difficult for her since she is a delivery driver who needs to get in and out of the company driveway frequently throughout the day. “They usually block the driveway and make parking a lot worse, it's annoying,” she said.
With the sewer replacement also came the installation of a new cross walk on E. Maple St., right off Samish Way. This has been a very positive part of the construction for Day. “The cross walk was one of the main things they were working on,” she said. For Day, the cross walk has been worth the annoyance of lack of parking and noise. “We use the cross walk to get over to The Bean Stop for coffee or the barista's and men working at the car wash across the street come over for pizza,” she said. With the new cross walk right outside of Pizza Pipeline, businesses in the area have benefited from being able to walk across the busy street to get a slice of pizza or a cup of coffee. “The Bean Stop keeps us awake, we love it!” she said.
Benefits of the Sewer Replacement Program
There are seven neighborhood's that are going to be getting their sewer's replaced within the
next year. Within the next couple weeks the Sehome sewer replacement construction will finally be done. With the completion of the construction the Sehome neighborhood will have much less noise, less traffic blocked ups, a big cross walk for pedestrians, and sewers that gracefully flow under the concrete. “It's definitely a smoother, cleaner finished product,” said Baker.