Vienna Approves Emergency Sewer Repair Funding

The Viennese city administration yesterday (Monday) unanimously approved 400,000 US dollars for the repair of emergency sewers.

The funds will go to contractor Tri-State Utilities for the inspection and possible repair of the Piney Branch-Difficult Run sewer, a 21-inch conduit in Wolf Trap National Park for the performing arts.

The sewer serves the city of Vienna as well as the surrounding parts of Fairfax County, including the Tysons business district.

The city of Vienna learned that the sewer had to be repaired in late March after Fairfax County inspectors alerted the city’s public works department that parts of the pipe could collapse.

“It has holes. Stones and roots protrude from it, ”said Michael Gallagher, Director of Public Works in Vienna. “There are about 750 feet of pipe that needs rehabilitation.”

The repairs will involve lining three sections of the sewer, according to the public works department, where the pipe wall was corroded by hydrogen sulfide and broken by roots and a large stone protruding through the top of the pipe.

Vienna used an emergency waiver to hire Tri-State Utilities for the emergency repair work on Sept. 21 after struggling to find a contractor and get permission to proceed from the US National Park Service, which owns Wolf Trap National Park .

Gallagher says the cost of the repairs is not expected to exceed $ 400,000, although the contractor has not yet determined the final scope of the work.

Under an agreement from 1963, which enables the city to share the operating and maintenance costs for its sewers with the Fairfax district, the Vienna district is reimbursed 63 percent of the project costs. The city is responsible for 37 percent of the costs.

As the owner of the sewer pipe, the City of Vienna is obliged to pay the full repair costs. Any money left over from the approved $ 400,000 will go back to the city’s capital improvement program, according to Gallagher.

Gallagher was unable to confirm a date for the repairs to be completed, but says the sewer line will take at least 50 years to complete.

Photo via Emerging Arts Leaders DC

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