Neighbors unite to replace Orangeburg sewer lines while city repaves street

Before the city sends crews to repave Mark Hannah Place — a neighborhood street on Ann Arbor's west side — residents on the street are jumping at the chance to save a few bucks.

Well, more than a few bucks.

A majority of the households on the street are paying a discount rate to have a contractor replace the decades-old Orangeburg sewer lines in front of their homes with new plastic piping.

What sometimes might cost up to $10,000 is instead costing residents about $7,500 each, neighbors and the contractor told AnnArbor.com this week as the work was being done.

The savings come as a result of the contractor, Ann Arbor-based Perimeter Engineering LLC, not having to repave the street in front of each home after ripping up the asphalt.

As part of the city's annual street resurfacing program, Mark Hannah Place and Arbana Drive from Linwood to Huron already was scheduled for repaving this summer.

Brian Steglitz, a senior utilities engineer for the city, lives on Mark Hannah Place and initiated the effort to coordinate the Orangeburg pipe replacement with the street repaving project.

"I think it's worked out well for everybody," he said.

Orangeburg is the brand name for a type of bituminous fiber pipe that was used by developers in the Ann Arbor area throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

It became popular for sewer leads — the underground pipes that convey wastewater from homes to the sewer main in the street — in the post-war housing boom due to its lower cost and lighter weight, but the pipes have proven to be prone to failure and tree-root penetration.

Per city code, repair and replacement of sanitary sewer leads from the house to the sewer main is the responsibility of the property owner.

Liz Rolla, senior project manager for the city, notified residents in March it had come to the city's attention that many of the sanitary sewer leads in the neighborhood were originally constructed with Orangeburg sewer piping, some of which already had been replaced.

Having Orangeburg pipes doesn't necessarily mean homeowners will have problems with their sewer leads in the near future, Rolla said, but if any homeowners were thinking about replacing the lines at some point, the city recommended doing the work prior to the street repaving.

Permit fees for making cuts into newly repaved streets are more expensive than for older streets, city officials said, so there also are savings to be found there for residents.

The street repaving project started Aug. 7 and is expected to finish by late September. The schedule has been delayed slightly while the city waits for remaining sewer lead work to be done.

Steglitz said the Orangeburg pipe replacement has been ongoing since May or June. He said a total of about 17 households on the street have contracted with Perimeter.

Steglitz had a sewer backup problem earlier this year and discovered his home had Orangeburg piping. Realizing many of his neighbors could find themselves in the same situation, and knowing the street was going to be resurfaced, he began reaching out to neighbors.

Steglitz solicited quotes from contractors. Early on, there were maybe eight or nine households that expressed interest, he said, but in the end almost everyone jumped on board.

"It was just pretty amazing," he said.

Perimeter has been using a special "pipe bursting" technique where crews dig down to the pipe connections both in front of the house and at the street, and then use cables to pull the new plastic piping through the Orangeburg pipe — bursting the old pipe in the process.

That means crews don't have to dig a deep trench through the entire front yard and there's minimal impact on landscaping. Steglitz said he appreciated that when he had the work done.

Chris Lynch said he lives around the corner on Arbana, so he's not having the work done, but he's still inspired by the neighborhood effort.

"I thought this was a great idea on the part of the Mark Hannah residents," he wrote in an email to AnnArbor.com, "and it may be something that can be repeated throughout the city as road work is scheduled in those areas with Orangeburg sewer lines."

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.