Fort Wayne Uses Segmental Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) Liner to Renew a Century-old Brick Sewer

The City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has experienced problems with its older combined sewers from time to time. In 1996, the City implemented the Sewer Evaluation Program with the goal to evaluate all combined and sanitary sewer pipes 8-inch to 126-inch in diameter within a twelve-year cycle. A failure in any of these sewers is problematic, but a failure in some of these lines, such as the Taylor Street Combined Sewer, would be catastrophic. The 72-inch brick sewer, constructed in 1902, is located beneath a busy multi-lane road near downtown Fort Wayne.The City of Fort Wayne resolved to identify and to rehabilitate these critical sewers before they collapse. A failure of critical large diameter sewers can result, and in other cities has resulted, in loss of life and expensive street and sewer repairs.The City of Fort Wayne retained Greeley and Hansen to assess the condition of the Taylor Street sewer from a structural and hydraulic basis, and to provide a technical memorandum for its rehabilitation or replacement. The sewer assessment identified poor structural integrity in critical sections of the 100-year-old sewer due to settlement, corrosion and natural deterioration. Conventional methods of repair or replacement by excavation or traditional slipling would be expensive, disruptive and require closing the street. Instead, it was recommended the City rehabilitate critical sections of the sewer using glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) panels.This paper provides an overview of large diameter sewer repair using GRP panels. It focuses on selection of GRP panels, design considerations, GRP technology, installation techniques and challenges of the Taylor Street Project.