City of Maben sewer system receives upgrades

By DOTTIE DEWBERRY
For the Daily News

A grant helps the city of Maben make much needed repairs to the city sewer system.
According to Maben Mayor Larry Pruitt, funding for the upgrading of the Maben sewers came from a Community Development Block Grant through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Miss. State Legislature. The Town received $650,000 for this upgrade.
According to Tommy Davies, Calvert and Spralding Engineers of West Point, who came to Maben back in 2004 the sewer repairs have been a long time coming.
Calvert and Spralding Engineers, Inc. is the engineering group that developed the plan for inspecting the sewers and the plan for repairing them.
Southern Sewer Services, Inc. is a residential and commercial company and is a division of Under Ground Eyes, who does video inspection, which is essential for assessing the condition of the pipe to determine if replacement is required, or, if not, which rehabilitation method would provide the most cost-effective remedy. They use a robotic camera that has a 360 degree pan and tilt head for this procedure.
Blue Creek Utility is called an open and cut contractor, which means that they have to dig up the sewer to replace the parts that need repairing as opposed to the trenchless repair.
SBP, the general contractor from Pensacola, Fla., and Robertsdale, Ala., provides municipal services, inspects pipes, and does the restoration using a trenchless sewer renewal liner. This is called a performance liner, which is made of felt and resin and is put in place by air pressure and steam.
The project has taken over three weeks, due to rerouting the sewage and having to turn water off in certain sections of the community, plus opening and cutting the sewer lines and replace them.
According to one of the workers, the biggest holdup in putting in the liners was the neglect to the system, therefore lots of digging up and replacing the sewer lines has to take place.