Portland assists Redmond sewer lining project

A sewer line project at the intersection of Fifth Street and Highland Avenue in Redmond on Wednesday brought crews not just from Redmond, but Bend, Madras and even Portland to assist — not that it was a big project, but more of a big opportunity to partner and to learn.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation crew came to town for the project as part of the Oregon Water Agency Response Network (ORWARN), where cities across the state who specialize in different utility work come together for special projects.

In this case, the city of Redmond said it did not have the appropriate lining tools to line a 51-foot fiberglass sewer pipe along Fifth Street.

Chris Miccolis, Redmond’s Waste Market Division manager, said, Redmond has always been a leader in cooperative agreements with other cities, not just in Central Oregon but through ORWARN.

“Through this, we were able to get the resources of being able to line along sewer lines that we don’t typically have the equipment to do,” he said. “Through that mutual aid agreement, we were able to get the benefit of the taxpayer in having this equipment come out, and the training for our operator here in Redmond and operators from other towns in Central Oregon.”

ORWARN is a program set up to help with emergencies, in particular the worry preparation for a major earthquake expected offshore along the Cascadia fault line, which could rupture many sewer lines through Central Oregon.

Wednesday’s training will help area crews understand and learn how to correctly put in these sewer lines, if tragedy strikes the area.

“Doing this activity will help operators respond to incidents like that in the future, helping one utility to another,” Miccolis said.

The project was expected to close one lane of Highland Avenue until around 2 p.m..