LTC 479-2019 CITY BENEFITS FROM CRUCIAL INVESTMENT IN 54TH REDUNDANT FORCE MAIN MIAMI BEACH
City of Miami Beach, 1700 Convention Center Drive,Miami Beach, Florida 33139,www.miamibeachfl.gov
Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
Tel: 305-673-7010, Fax: 305-673.—
.
05-673-- 4.79-20
18
NO. LTC # LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Dan Gelber and Members o the City SIimmissio
16.
FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: August 28, 2019
SUBJECT: CITY BENEFITS FROM CRUCIA INVESTMENT IN 54" REDUNDANT FORCE MAIN
The purpose of this Letter to Commission is to emphasize the importance of the 54" redundant force main,
which ensures that sewer service remains uninterrupted citywide.
My administration, under the direct leadership of Eric Carpenter, Roy Coley and Jay Fink, had the foresight
in 2015 of investing in a 54" redundant force main to create an alternate sanitary sewer route in cases of
emergencies and during necessary maintenance. This improvement placed the City at a notable advantage
on July 31, 2019, when Crown Castle's contractor, Draft Pro, hit the sewer force main on 5th Street and
Michigan. Prior to installing the 54" redundant force main, such a circumstance could have proven to be
catastrophic, as no other route existed for sewer waste. However, the new redundant force main enabled
the expeditious rerouting of sewage flows without interrupting sewer service, and significantly reducing the
discharge of what could have been 100 million gallons of raw sewage into Biscayne Bay.
Undoubtedly, the City must continue investing in proactive redundancy efforts. Within the next month,
Hazen and Sawyer will deliver a water and sewer master plan with recommendations to maintain the City
future-ready. This plan will be shared with the Commission when available.
To provide historical context, the original force main was the sole conveyor of sanitary sewer to the water
treatment plant on Virginia Key. Given the system's inevitable aging infrastructure, this placed the City in a
vulnerable position. In 2012, the administration contracted Pure Technologies to conduct a Condition
Assessment Report of the original force main that connects to the Government Cut force main in the
southern part of the City. The analysis evaluated 260 pipe segments and found that eight of those had
electromagnetic anomalies indicating broken steel pre-stressing wire wraps.
Although the anomalies did not pose an immediate threat to the system's performance, the administration
understood that the City was not prepared to seamlessly manage a leak or emergency repair in this portion
of the wastewater system. Upon my arrival in 2013, the City planned to spend up to $5 million on a
temporary bypass of the damaged segments while the eight compromised segments were repaired. The
beforementioned team realized the benefit of building a fully redundant system and deemed it prudent to
install a new full-length 54" redundant force main at a cost of$10 million. This would allow the existing force
main to be disabled when undergoing repairs, which was the method used following the recent accidental
damage.
This following schematic identifies the position of the original force main and the new route offered by the
54" redundant force main:
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LEGEND
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SANITARY FORCE MAIN 54" FROM
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SCHEMATIC ONLY- NOT TO SCALE