The city of Vancouver will dig up part of the freshly rebuilt West Eighth Street this week to find the cause of a clogged sewer lateral line that serves Cascade Fire Safety.
A TV camera inspection of the pipe didn’t reveal the source of the clog, and so city contractor Nutter Corp. will dig up the line, which was installed around 2009 as part of a city project, Public Works spokeswoman Loretta Callahan said Wednesday. Clogs in sewer lines can be caused by something flushed down a toilet or poured down a drain, or by intrusive roots or a physical problem with the pipe, she said.
Clearing the blockage requires removing about 40 linear feet of material, she said.
Workers will punch through the pavement along the curb at the northeast corner of West Eighth and Harney streets, where roadway improvements have been made as part of the downtown waterfront project in progress.
If there’s a physical problem with the pipe, such as an offset joint, Nutter will fix it. In that case, the city would work with Nutter to determine responsibility for repair costs, depending on what caused the problem, Callahan said.
