Charlotte's Sewer Rehabilitation Program: Clear Direction, Quick Decisions, Streamlined Construction, Proven Success

Charlotte Water, located in Charlotte North Carolina, is the largest sewer utility in the Carolinas with approximately 4,500 miles of gravity sewer. Charlotte has been implementing a substantial and aggressive long-term sanitary sewer rehabilitation program to reduce sewer system overflows (SSOs), correct historic maintenance problems, and reduce infiltration and inflow (I/I) into aging sewers. Charlotte’s rehabilitation program has a current annual budget of about $26 million, including an annual budget of approximately $10 million for small diameter sewer rehabilitation and approximately $6 million for large diameter sewer rehabilitation. Charlotte has developed a specific, systematic rehabilitation program and approach to renew and restore the sewer system. Charlotte’s rehabilitation approach has been focused on expediting the identification and prioritization of sewers to be rehabilitated and minimizing the lengthy review, analysis, evaluation, and reporting that is often done when implementing sewer rehabilitation programs. This paper presents Charlotte’s streamlined design and construction process.