Some South Surrey sewer manholes will be replaced or removed after two sinkholes emerged on 152 Street near 29A Avenue last October.
The sinkholes were caused by a deteriorated sanitary sewer manhole damaged by severe hydrogen sulfide corrosion, which required urgent repair work completed by city crews, a Surrey corporate report noted, and further inspections of nearby sanitary manholes on 152 Street from 29 Avenue to King George Boulevard and on King George Boulevard from 152 Street to 24 Avenue revealed "several manholes with severe corrosion that are at risk of failure, which require immediate replacement."
Surrey council discussed the matter at their meeting on Monday (May 12) and ultimately voted to approve the engineering department's recommendation to award the contract to J Cote & Son Excavating Ltd. in the amount of $1,732,815 for the replacement of 24 sanitary sewer manholes, and set the expenditure authorization at $1,910,000.
Council also approved the recommendation to award a consultant agreement for related engineering construction services to R.F. Binnie & Associates Ltd. in the amount of $78,477, and set the expenditure authorization limit at $87,000.00 and also approved authorizing the city's general manager of engineering, Scott Neuman, to execute the contract and consultant agreement.
At the meeting, Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke wondered about the longevity of manholes.
"Why do we have to replace, and how often do we have to replace these manholes?" she queried.
"These manholes, we typically don鈥檛 replace them ... like every 60 years (or longer), but in this particular area of Surrey, there鈥檚 high levels of corrosion in the sewer, so the the sewer gas, if you would, has eaten away at the concrete manholes. ... There were a couple of sinkholes formed," Neuman responded.
Neuman said a review of the sinkholes found 24 manholes that needed to be addressed: 12 that need to be replaced and 12 that are being removed permanently "so we won鈥檛 have those issues again."
The 12 manholes that will be replaced will feature new, lined manholes to provide protection to the concrete manhole surface from hydrogen sulfide gases, the corporate report said.
Funding for the work is available from the 2025 Utilities Budget through the Infrastructure Reserve Fund, the corporate report added.
Work to remedy the issue is expected to start this June and be completed by this September.
鈥� with a file from Tom Zytaruk
