Work will be loud along 15th Avenue for the next nine weeks.

The City of Regina is working an relining the waste water trunk by sending a robot into the pipes and relining it, instead of digging up the ground. The work will be done to 30 blocks, or about three kilometres, over the next nine weeks.

Supplied by the City of Regina

Director of Waste and Environmental Services Pat Wilson says the construction itself isn’t what’s loud, but the pumping of waste water is what’s causing the noise. “That sound is pumping of the waste water around the section that is being worked on. So we have to clean the pipe, then we continue to pump and then we do the relining section by section as we go through the city.”

Wilson says when there is a small pipe break or work that needs to be done, typically crews would ask residents in the area to stop flushing their toilets until the work was done, but with something like this that takes a long time you have to re-route the waste water.  She adds that currently the loud pump does have to run 24 hours a day. “The pumping has to be 24/7 otherwise everybody east of here would have to stop flushing and that would not be very practical. so it’s about 25 percent of the population that is being served by this trunk underground.”

Wilson says one family has been moved into a hotel until the pumping around their house has stopped. “Obviously we try to minimize that as much as we can, but our contractor works with individuals who may be especially close and especially affected. We know that there may be special circumstances that somebody may have that makes it impossible to tolerate the noise.”

She says the city is trying to not stay in block or intersection for longer than necessary and really appreciates the residents that can stay in their homes while the work is being done.

The city says this method of work, although loud, is very cost friendly. Wilson says this nine week project is costing $5-million, compared to a full dig that would cost $15-million.