Regional sanitary sewer collapse in the City of Brooklyn Park
July 11, 2022
MCES has completed repair of a section of regional sanitary sewer that collapsed May 16 in the City of Brooklyn Park.
The damaged 36-inch-diameter, concrete gravity-flow sewer was constructed in 1973 off the south side of 85th Ave. N. and west of Highway 169. During the emergency, wastewater did not spill to the surface of the ground or to surface waters, or back up into homes or businesses.
On the day of the sewer collapse, MCES dispatched an emergency contractor to install temporary pumps and on-the-ground temporary pipes to divert the wastewater around the damaged sewer. Another emergency contractor needed several weeks to safely make a 34-foot-deep excavation and repair the collapsed sewer – a difficult job amid overhead and underground utilities and along busy 85th Ave. N.
Now that the worst of the damage in the sewer has been repaired, a planned rehabilitation project can proceed this summer with installing a cured-in-place-pipe lining in a 1,000-foot stretch of the sewer to extend its life another 50 or more years. Learn more about the Brooklyn Park - Osseo sanitary sewer improvement project.
May 17, 2022
Metropolitan Council Environmental Services (MCES), operator of the regional wastewater collection and treatment system, is responding to the collapse of a regional sanitary sewer that occurred Monday, May 16, in the City of Brooklyn Park.
The damaged 36-inch-diameter, concrete gravity-flow sewer is off the south side of 85th Ave. N., approximately one-quarter mile west of the street’s intersection with Highway 169. The sewer, which is about 34 feet underground, is currently blocked with debris and soil from a sinkhole that formed above it.
MCES maintenance staff responded Monday afternoon, pumped the wastewater out of an upstream maintenance hole, and transported it by tank trucks to another maintenance hole downstream (south) of the collapse. Wastewater did not spill to the surface of the ground or to surface waters.
MCES’s emergency sewer contractor installed temporary pumps and on-the-ground temporary pipes to divert the wastewater around the sewer collapse and back into the regional sanitary sewer downstream. This equipment began operating at 7:30 p.m. Monday. More temporary pipes were being added Tuesday.
MCES staff and their emergency sewer contractor are quickly developing a plan to safely excavate approximately 34 feet deep to see the extent of the damage to the sewer and analyze options for getting it back into service as soon as possible.
The damaged section of sewer is part of an approximately 1,000-foot stretch of pipe that had previously been scheduled for a rehabilitation project to begin this spring. MCES will determine how fixing the sewer collapse will affect the rest of the rehabilitation project.