The condition of drainpipes uncovered in Seven Lakes West's first culvert repair has persuaded Infrastructure Director John Goodman to accelerate his work schedule and fix four more culverts this Spring.
"It's really a matter of public safety," Goodman told The Times. "It's not worth the risk to wait for one of these to fail, because you don't know how long it would take to get on the contractor's schedule."
The questionable culverts carry water under Longleaf Drive. The first repair was conducted in the first week on the New Year and involved removing three 30-inch galvanized steel pipes from a culvert located on Longleaf between Wagoner and Vanore. Two of the pipes, when removed, turned out to be "on the low side of the scale in terms of their condition," Goodman told The Times.
"We could see that they had rusted out" during an earlier inspection, Goodman said, but silt in the pipes made it hard to determine the level of damage. Two of the pipes lIterally fell apart as they were being removed, he added.
Once the poor condition of the pipes was evident, Goodman said, he reinspected twelve other suspect culverts and identified four more that appear to be in need of immediate attention. The plan is to repair all of those during the month of February and to complete repairs on the remaining eight by the Summer of 2014.
The price per culvert ranges from $16,000 to $22,000, Goodman told The Times. The current year's budget includes only funds for the repair just completed, but the other four are in the FY 2011-2012 budget, which starts in May. Goodman explained that the February culvert replacements will be funded from reserves, which will then be replenished with the culvert replacement funds included in next year's budget.
Funding for four more culvert repairs will be included in both the budget for FY 2012-2013 and for FY 2013-2014.
The old galvanized metal pipes are being replaced with smooth concrete pipes. Noting that the metal pipes lasted 25-30 years, Goodman said the new pipes should last three times that long. The repair is being topped off with an aggregate that compacts well as a road base. Once this year's other four culverts are fixed, all five spots will be repaved at the same time.
The Wagoner-Vanore culvert was located in a spot that offered no detour for traffic, which meant residents were restricted to using either the front gate or the back gate for a week.
The four culverts to be repaired in February don't pose this problem; traffic can be detoured around each of them using side streets.
The tentative February repair schedule is as follows:
Jan 31 – Feb 7 – Just South of the Community Center/Otter Road
Feb 8 – Feb 14 - Just South of Callis Circle
Feb 17 – Feb 24 - First Culvert just West of Lake Auman Dam
Feb 17 – Feb 24 - Second Culvert just West of Lake Auman Dam
