Pipe Bursting in Mantua

Mantua's river village and what lies under it

Mantua grew up where the upper Cuyahoga River was bridged and milled, and its core along Main Street, Prospect Street and High Street holds homes and storefronts from the 1830s through the 1920s. When the village sewer system was built, those houses were connected with vitrified clay laterals in short jointed lengths, often with cast iron through the foundation wall. The postwar streets on the higher ground east and west of the center, built in the 1950s and 1960s, may hold clay, Orangeburg fiber pipe or asbestos-cement.

Homes built from the late 1970s on, and the newer lots toward the township edges, generally have PVC laterals. The village is small enough that most laterals are short, but the oldest ones near the river are also the deepest in groundwater, and that combination defines sewer work here.

Floodplain clay, a high water table and river trees

The low streets of Mantua sit on the Cuyahoga floodplain, where silty clay and old river deposits keep the water table close to the surface for much of the year. A clay lateral with open joints in that ground does not just leak out; it takes water in, running half full of groundwater all spring and washing fine soil into the pipe until a void opens outside it and the pipe drops. On the hill above the river the soil is glacial till with a heavy clay fraction, and the frost that reaches three feet heaves it every winter.

Willows, sycamores and cottonwoods line the river and its backwaters, and sugar maples and silver maples shade the older streets. Their roots follow the moisture leaking from every clay joint. A camera run on a lateral near the river usually shows water trickling in at several joints and root curtains at the rest, with a belly or two where the bedding has washed away.

Lining, bursting and point repair in wet ground

A camera inspection and a locate come first. For a clay lateral that is cracked, rooted and infiltrating but still round, cured-in-place pipe lining is the usual recommendation and the one that does the most for the village plant, because it stops the groundwater from entering. The crew cuts roots, hydro jets the line, then inverts or pulls an epoxy-saturated felt liner through the run and cures it with hot water, steam or UV light. The result is a jointless pipe that neither roots nor groundwater can enter.

When the camera cannot pass a collapsed or crushed section, pipe bursting replaces the run with fused HDPE pulled between a pit at the house and a pit near the main. In the floodplain those pits fill with water and must be shored and pumped, which is part of what an experienced crew brings. For a single failed joint on an otherwise sound line, a sectional point repair, a short liner cured over that spot, avoids relining the whole run.

Village permits, the right-of-way and inspection

The Village of Mantua issues the sewer permit and performs the inspection, and a pit in the street or sidewalk requires a right-of-way permit from the village. Along Route 44 or Route 82 the state transportation department may also be involved. Properties outside the corporation line in Mantua Township are mostly on septic and go through the Portage County health district. The inspector expects to see bursting pits open before backfill and the post-cure video on a lining job.

The day of the work and how to choose an installer

Plan on water being off for several hours, a truck at the curb and a crew at the cleanout or a small pit by the foundation. Lining is normally a one-day job; bursting in wet ground can take two once dewatering and restoration are counted. Before signing, get the camera footage, a written method and the product name of the liner or pipe. To compare candidates, find a verified CIPP contractor and ask each one how it handles groundwater at the liner ends and in the pits, since that is the problem that defines sewer work in a river village like this one.

Pipe Bursting in Mantua

How pipe bursting works

A steel cable is threaded through the old sewer line from a pit at one end to a pit at the other. A cone-shaped bursting head, with new high-density polyethylene pipe fused to it, is pulled through by a hydraulic unit. The head splits the old clay or cast iron outward into the soil and the new pipe follows in the same alignment at the same depth. The result is a single fused length of pipe with no joints for roots to find.

When bursting is the right call

• Collapsed sections — a liner needs a host pipe to hold its shape; a collapsed run has none.
• Bellies — a low spot that holds water stays a low spot after lining. Bursting lays new pipe on a fresh bed.
• Undersized lines — bursting can upsize a 3-inch lateral to 4 inches; lining slightly reduces diameter.
• Badly deformed pipe — Orangeburg that has flattened, or cast iron with most of its bottom gone.

What the job looks like

One pit at the house or cleanout, one at the property line or the street connection, each a few feet square. Utilities that cross within a foot or two of the sewer path are located and potholed first. The pull takes an hour or two; the whole job, including fusing, connections, inspection and backfill, is usually one day.

Permits and the street

If the downstream pit is in the sidewalk, parkway or street, a right-of-way permit and restoration to city standards are required in addition to the plumbing permit. If the connection at the main is replaced, the city inspects it before the pit closes. Confirm who is handling this before work starts.

ZIP codes served in Mantua

Pipe Bursting is available throughout Mantua, including ZIP codes 44255.

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Questions we hear in Mantua