A NIPSCO crew directional-boring a new natural-gas line under 100E on Tuesday--part of the South Calumet District project--ruptured a sanitary sewer pipe.

The rupture was discovered around 3 p.m. on Wednesday after toilets in the neighborhood, including one at the Chesterton South branch of Centier Bank, began bubbling up, Utility Interim Superintendent Mark O’Dell told the Chesterton Tribune today.

NIPSCO was directional-boring from west to east when it hit the pipe, buried beneath the shoulder of 100E on the east side of the road. “When you’re boring sometimes it can get deflected or change direction and it’s hard to know that it’s happened,” O’Dell said. “The boring head will bust through anything and you won’t know.”

The Utility did get proof of the goof, in the form of a photograph of the yellow natural-gas line sticking through the 12-inch clay pipe.

O’Dell immediately contacted the Northern Indiana Public Service Company and both parties agreed to contact R.V. Sutton Inc. for the repair. O’Dell said that an R.V. Sutton crew responded to the scene within 20 minutes of getting the call and by 6:30 p.m. it had staged its heavy equipment, excavated the rupture, and installed a trench box.

The main difficulty in repairing the rupture was the saturation of the ground following last weekend’s heavy rain. “The trench kept collapsing and we had to use the vacuum truck to suck up the ground water,” O’Dell said.

But R.V. Sutton and a Utility collections crew did manage to splice in a new section of pipe and the fix was completed around 2:30 a.m. today, O’Dell said. “It was a team effort.”

The natural-gas line itself was lifted to a new position above the sanitary sewer pipe.

This morning 100E remained closed just south of Beverly Drive to 1100N but Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg expected the road to be opened by mid-day, after R.V. Sutton had finished filling in the excavation and removed its equipment.

Of R.V. Sutton’s rapid response, O’Dell said, “It’s good to have someone in the community we can rely on.”

R.V. Sutton’s claim for the work will be submitted to NIPSCO.

Posted 4/9/2009