Ditchmen • NUCA of Florida February 2019 | Page 19

chapter
ARTICLE
PUBLIC WORKS/CONSTRUCTION SERVICES
Sewer & Storm Drain Emergency
Linestop, Bypass, Repair & Remediation
Friday night was proceeding quite uneventfully until
the call came from Randolph Brown, Director of
Pompano Beach Utilities.
• January 2019
• Final Project Amount
$2,302,428
• Proactive People
Minimize Pompano
Puncture
• Three (3) Phases of
Emergency Work
• Leak Isolation
Hazardous Spill Cleanup
Remediation
down to a manageable rate. The next step was to call
in a full line stop of a 42” force main along with a fusion
weld HDPE bypass in order to circumvent the section
of pipe which could then be dewatered and replaced.
A directional subcontractor had mistakenly pushed
a 12” drill through a 42” PCCP prestressed concrete
cylinder pipe, which conveyed all of the City of
Pompano and Lauderdale by the Seas’ force main
sewerage to Broward County.
Lanzo crews worked feverishly around the clock to
make material delivery, not labor and equipment be
the control parameters.
Meanwhile Vactor trucks continuously pumped solids
and sewerage materials out of the canals being
infiltrated. This continued for the entire duration of the
emergency repair and then for over a week while canal
water was monitored for contamination levels.
Fred Tingberg, Lanzo’s recently appointed COO, was
asked to provide informational resources so that a
growing environmental concern could be first isolated
then mitigated. Fred knew people at Miami Dade
and others who might be called upon in the heat of
the moment to provide emergency equipment and
expertise which might be consequential in minimizing
the issue at hand.
The mitigation phase consisted of continued vacuum
efforts to draw down canal liquids exceeding
acceptable levels along with the deployment of over
100 compressed air diffusers throughout the Pompano
Beach canal network.
With an emergency firm already under contract;
information is all that Fred expected Lanzo would
be providing until a second call came in asking for a
turnkey operation by Lanzo.
Much like the air stone in a home aquarium these
diffusers bubble up oxygen to help aerate the canal
water and begin the cleanup process, which only
oxygenation can provide.
Not only were substantial flows of untreated
wastewater being expelled into the canal system,
but the precarious location of the accident within the
shoulder of I-95 meant that things could escalate.
The effort lasted for over four weeks and along with
surface restoration and canal bank cleanup efforts the
combination of City of Pompano and Lanzo Corporation
forces working in a cooperative effort headed up by
City Manager, Greg Harrison, minimized what might
have otherwise been an even more catastrophic event.
The next three days were a round the clock effort to
isolate the offending cylinder pipe. It was thought that
flows could be reduced to the point of allowing a point
repair, which turned out to be untrue given the only
three (3) hour window where flows could be drawn
“Building and restoring sustainable infrastructure to
support the needs of our communities”
• • •
FEBRUARY 2019 • DITCHMEN
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