Crews went by and did not find anything wrong and did not smell anything unusual. This is right up the road from where the contractor replaced a broken section of force main and I do believe there is an air relief valve in the vicinity so we will keep a check on it to see if it comes back

The sanitary sewer overflow that occurred on the Northeast prong of Turkey Creek was due to a severely deteriorated 24” ductile iron force main. City of Raleigh Public Utility staff were notified of the overflow by a City inspector that was inspecting the adjacent town home community on Tuesday morning. Public Utility crews were dispatched to the overflow and after a few hours of digging were able to get the sewage back into the broken force main which discharges to a 36” gravity sanitary sewer line. Park Construction (a City contractor) responded to the overflow at the request of the City and installed an aqua dam (water filled bladder barriers) between the creek and the sewer to prevent further spilling. As of Tuesday around 4PM, the sewer was no longer flowing into the creek. A pumping system was also installed into the open channel as a precautionary measure in the event that the broken line was to become clogged again.

The odors that are currently being experienced are due to the temporary open channel configuration. Now that the system is stable, an intermediate step (which will help with the odor), is to slip a smaller PVC line into the broken pipe. The line will then be sealed a backfilled. The intermediate step should be completed either later today or tomorrow.

The City also has a permanent repair plan in place, which will replace approximately 300’ of the existing ductile iron pipe, that will begin next Tuesday around 4 AM (low flow period). The work will be permanently repaired by September 21, 2012.

Cities across the nation are dealing with aging infrastructure issues such as these. In an effort to get ahead of these issues, the City signed a contract with engineering consultant CDM Smith in June 2012, to enhance our existing approach for prioritizing inspection and rehabilitation of our water distribution and wastewater collection piping that will more fully leverage Asset Management best practices. The vision is to have a revised process that will allow the City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department to be more proactive to water and sewer main rehabilitation. The Asset Management program will also provide the City a tool to estimate the amount of funds to be appropriated for replacement of it’s infrastructure for the next 100 years.