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Stormwater repairs continue into new year By SYDNEY DANGREMOND sydney@appenmedia.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Seven months since the passage of Johns Creek’s stormwater utility, repairs have begun on the city’s aging drainage network. City workers and contractors were in the Roswell Mill neighborhood off Jones Bridge Road Jan. 19 working on a contract for five individual stormwater repairs totaling $75,000. Since establishing the utility in June city staff has been seeking bids and working with contractors to begin repairs city-wide. The stormwater utility ordinance charges residents fees based on the amount of impervious surface on their property. Fees collected from the utility go into the city’s stormwater fund for maintenance and repairs. Much of the Roswell Mill neighborhood and its stormwater system was developed in the mid to late 1980s. Underneath its public roadways are a network of corrugated metal pipes nearing the end of their 30-40 year lifespan, Stormwater Utility Manager Cory Rayburn said. All stormwater infrastructure throughout Johns Creek underwent inspection between 2018 and 2020 as part of a conditions assessment by the city. Based on data collected over the twoyear study, the city identified pressure points and prioritized repairs over time. Pipes in Roswell Mill identified in the January task order were selected for types of trenchless repair, meaning no roadways or adjoining private property needed to be dug-up and neighborhood
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A robotic rover is prepared to investigate silt build-up in a pipe in the Roswell Mill neighborhood Jan. 19.
PHOTOS BY: SYDNEY DANGREMOND/APPEN MEDIA
A crew from Federal EC installs a new lining to a stormwater pipe underneath Hanstedt Trace in Johns Creek Jan. 19. impact was minimal. Two of the pipes were repaired from the inside out using a lining process. One pipe that crosses Hanstedt Trace was repaired using a cured-in-place process which essentially creates a new pipe within the existing one. A polyester felt tube coated in a resin is inverted and inflated inside the existing structure. Then, using heat the tube cures and hardens into a working stormwater pipe. The process resembles the inflatable tube men seen outside car dealerships. This Roswell Mill contract was awarded through a bidding process to Federal
EC LLC, a small business in Woodstock. Jonathan Raymer, a utility and general contractor and professional engineer, runs the business with his wife. Raymer said the cured-in-place lining process will result in pipe with a design life of 100 years. Meanwhile, the repair only takes three to four hours. “It’s kind of like next-level preventative maintenance to where we’re saving future costs,” Rayburn said. “Using this technology is three times cheaper than having to dig up and replace [the pipes].” If the pipes were left unrepaired for much longer, Rayburn said, the neighbor-
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hood’s roads could have become sinkholes. Another one of the pipes repaired Jan. 19, located on Hampton Square Drive, used a different lining method called spincasting. Using a special mix of cement reinforced with tinsel fibers, a small rover ventures into a pipe and sprays the mixtures along the walls. The process is repeated to form layers and results in a fully functional, repaired and reinforced cement pipe inside the old pipe. A tremendous amount of engineering goes into each repair, merging the specifications of the pipe with the needs of the watershed at large. Roman Carey, Johns Creek stormwater engineer estimated the city has 14 stormwater task orders underway, though not all include robust repairs like those performed Jan. 19. Some of the task orders
See REPAIRS, Page 12