I continue to be perplexed over the town's stubborn attitude toward the forced sewer main. Finally, after a number of years the town is looking seriously at the issue of the age of this line and what to do about it. This portion of the town sewer system was built in the mid 60's and unfortunately the route that was chosen happens to go directly through the towns main well field.
The line is under constant pressure as the pumping station at Terrace Hall Avenue pushing sewerage up Mall Road where is crests at South Bedford Street, from there it gravity feeds down into Woburn.
Preliminary estimates for the project have range between 4 and 6 million dollars. What hasn't been talked about much is keeping the line intact but using vinyl lining to greatly extend the life of the line. This is a common practice that we have used in the past and this would substantially reduce the costs of a complete new construction.
The argument against this has been that the line can't been examined or worked on because it is under pressure all the time and a camera can't be sent in there because of that pressure. That argument can be refuted with these questions. What would happen if the line failed? How would a repair be performed? We know this answer because other lines have failed in town. The process is pretty simple. The entire system through out the town has a network of manholes that enable access into the pipes. When a failure occurs, a temporary jump line is constructed from one manhole to another over the damaged area to enable flow free access to the area that has failed.
Maybe the solution to this problem is a complete new line however, it would seem that exhausting all the other more economical alternatives would be a better way to approach such an enormous project. In the interim, at the very least, the town should be testing for sewerage leaks along the length of this line that goes through the Great Meadow. If they wait to find indications of a leak by testing at the water treatment plant it will be way to late.
