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AWA to apply for sewer line repair funds

The Altoona Water Authority plans to apply for a $423,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Small Water & Sewer Program to pay for lining deteriorated terra cotta sewer piping in several areas.

The authority would be responsible for a 15 percent match, according to authority consulting engineer Mark Glenn of Gwin Dobson & Foreman, who suggested applying for the grant.

The grant would help ensure the authority could do all the work next year, although it would try to do most of it then anyway, according to Controller Gina DeRubeis.

The work would be done along 36th Street, Ivyside Drive, East Ward and Aldrich avenues, Pleasant Valley Boulevard and East 24th Avenue and along Mill Run, according to Glenn. There is also work to be done on an “outfall” main that takes effluent to the Westerly Sewer Treatment Plant.

Glenn estimated the authority could find out within a few months whether it will get the money.

There are likely to be many applicants, he said.

The authority currently is working on cleaning and lining sewer pipes on South 15th Street, on 22nd Street and on Kissell Avenue, said General Manager Mark Perry.

The cleaning phase of that work is finished, Perry said.

That came after workers ran cameras connected to cables through the lines to find problem areas, including places where roots have intruded.

The cleaning and lining of sewer piping is a substitute for the much more expensive replacement of lines that are no longer sound enough to prevent groundwater infiltration and leaking of effluent, according to Glenn and authority in-house engineer Mike Sinisi.

Crews work manhole-to-manhole, inserting a resin-saturated felt liner, then expanding it and curing it, using steam or water to create “a brand new pipe within the existing pipe,” states the application produced by Gwin Dobson.

Not only does lining obviate the need to excavate, it creates a smooth new interior that allows for greater flow capacity, according to the application.

The authority is constantly looking for water and sewer piping that need to be renovated.

“It never ends,” Sinisi said.

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