Costa Mesa Sanitary District to start work soon on project replacing 64-year-old wastewater pipe
The Costa Mesa Sanitary District will start work soon on a $673,530 project to replace a 64-year-old cast-iron pipe in Westside Costa Mesa.
The pipe in question is more than 2,500 feet long — running from around the intersection of Oak Street and President Place east to Placentia Avenue.
Work is expected to commence in a few weeks and take about a month to complete, sanitary district General Manager Scott Carroll said Thursday.
As it’s made of iron, the pressurized pipe is subject to corrosion as it ages, “so we want to replace this before it fails,” Carroll said.
“Because of the topography of Costa Mesa, we have to push the wastewater uphill — so there’s a lot of pressure,” he said. “If those pipes burst, you’ll have a geyser of wastewater.
“Obviously, we don’t want that,” he added with a laugh.
The new pipe will be made of high-density polyethylene, a corrosion-resistant plastic material Carroll said is expected to last for at least a century.
To minimize the project’s surface impacts, the sanitary district will use a process called horizontal directional drilling — a technique that uses a drilling rig launched above ground to carve out a subterranean path for the new pipe.
The district used the same method previously to replace pipe around Victoria Street and the intersection of Wilson Street and Harbor Boulevard.
As the latest project is in a residential area, most work will take place during daytime hours to avoid snarling traffic, according to Carroll.
In the coming weeks, the sanitary district will send fliers to area residents notifying them about the project, he added.
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