The City of Swift Current will be doing some much-needed dirty work on damaged sewer lines.

In order to maintain sanitary standards and avoid further corrosion, 3222 metres of sanitary mains will be relined this year.

These specific main lines are considered to be in 'very poor condition' as they have reached stage four of the City's one-to-five rating system.

Greg Parsons, general manager of infrastructure and operations for the City of Swift Current, revealed how the city plans to save money while completing this task. 

"Restoring these lines using the trenchless approach will prove to be a cost-effective approach," said Parsons. 

The alternative would be to rip up the pavement on the street above, dig out the old infrastructure, and install all new pipelines. By utilizing relining technology, they avoid all the earth's work and operate inside manhole access areas. 

The cost of this work will be $141,515. The contract for the work went to New Line Trenchless Technologies of Calgary.

That winning bid is under the budgeted amount of $170,000, saving the City $28,485. 

"We have a program in place where we're trying to inspect all of our sewer pipes," said Parsons. "It takes, I'll say, roughly about a four-to-five-year window to run the camera down every sewer pipe."

The goal in tracking down the most problematic areas is to be proactive, rather than reactionary. When a sanitary main collapses, there is no choice but to fix it, which means going through the whole process of digging it up and fully replacing it.

"Then you might have to sacrifice a different project to use that budget money to cover the cost," said Parsons. "That's kind of part of the problem with being reactionary to those."