The rehabilitation of the Swifts Beach sewer pipe that collapsed in 2016 is projected to be completed by the end of February despite the pipes being falsely identified as completely made from asbestos, according to local businessman and bid holder Danny Warren of Danny Warren Consulting. 

Warren and the Sewer Commission held a meeting Saturday, Jan. 20 to provide an update on the long-awaited repairs, which began in November 2023. 

After the pipe collapsed, the town designed a plan to replace the gravity sewer system with an electronic low-pressure system. However, residents were not satisfied and wanted other options.

Due to the asbestos believed to be used in the original piping, if the broken pipe was completely removed, it would have had to be shipped to Idaho for an expensive disposal process. 

This led to the creation of a resin by Warren and his team, which was designed to seal the old asbestos-ridden pipe, preventing any harmful particles from escaping. Warren announced at the meeting that this never-done-before process for dealing with asbestos pipes has now been patented. 

After a long approval process, Warren won the bid and when the team finally dug down to the first pipe, it was discovered it was actually not made from asbestos, but rather from steel.

“We ran into a lot of obstacles in Phase One that were not identified in the drawings from 1977,” Warren said.

The project was broken into two phases, each taking one half of the Wankinquoah Avenue sewer pipe. The first phase included the piping from the Swifts Beach Road intersection to Bayview Street and Phase Two is Bayview Street down to Murphy Street.

The difference between the maps and reality continued to occur with pipes extending further than they were drawn and made from different materials, such as plastic in addition to the steel. 

However, in Phase Two, as the team continued to dig farther, some asbestos pipes were uncovered, according to Warren. The team will use the resin on this section of pipe this week. 

Warren said the steel pipes cost approximately $270,000 in additional funding. 

“The little bit of asbestos that we have encountered in just the lateral pipes cost over $100,000 or whatever to get rid of,” he said.

Warren explained the reason these pipes may have been mistaken for asbestos in the 1970s was because concrete was used to keep the steel from rusting, giving the pipe the same look as an asbestos one. 

The lack of accurate drawings also led to the team mistakenly nicking a gas main. Warren said it was a “potential nightmare,” but discovering the first gas line  led them to realize all the gas lines were at the wrong depth in the ground.

All of this and more led to a delay in the completion of Phase One. However, Warren said the team learned a lot for Phase Two and now feels more confident in the next stage of construction. 

In addition to the main repairs, Warren connected with residents who have been affected by this construction. 

All the switches for sewer and water were “flawlessly” completed, according to Warren. None of the residents attending the meeting had any issues with accessing their water.

One family has been negotiating the rehabilitation of their yard, which was impacted by the work. Warren assured them the repairs will most likely get started before the road is paved.

Attendees of the meeting expressed gratitude toward Warren and his team for maintaining access to the road throughout construction. 

Warren said developing a new drawing of where everything is located underground is going to be essential for future projects and will also help with financial planning, especially “when you’re dealing with asbestos that close to the ocean.”

“That was a massive gamble for me personally,” he added. “We just had faith in what we could do and we went ahead and did it. But if we would have known it was a steel pipe, it would have been a different story.”

Sewer Commission member Bob Scanlon said the construction team at Swifts Beach has been quite “conscientious.”

Scanlon said, “They stay on top of things. They find problems before they occur — before they become a problem. They've been really great guys, and it's almost choreographed down there the way that they've been handling the constructions.”