The Fairhope City Council has approved a $700,000 emergency repair to fix a major artery on Section Street near downtown that washed out during weekend storms.
McElhenney Construction Company LLC was awarded the job with a $683,521.36 bid to repair the sidewalk and curbing that washed away. The City will also pay Sawgrass Consulting $71,000 for engineering services.
Public Works director Richard Johnson said plastic piping 20 feet underground suffered joint failures before the rain event. About five inches of rain in a short amount of time overwhelmed the system, causing what he said was a “complete catastrophic failure.”
“A fix is required,” Johnson said. “You know, the biggest challenge is Section Street is our major entrance into town and even though Bayou is a reasonable, short-term detour bypass, it is not a long-term solution.”
New pipes will be made of concrete, and existing pipes will be reinforced.
“To make sure that we're not revisiting this anytime too soon is they will go in and do a cured in place fiberglass lining of that plastic pipe that'll give us that 50-year, 75-year performance just like a concrete,” Johnson explained. “And then everything that's being replaced will be concrete, and hopefully, the council that's sitting here in 100 years won’t be dealing with this problem.”
Work is expected to begin Thursday and should be completed within 15 days.
Johnson said the City is already addressing other spots of concern.
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