Like in many cities, the stormwater lines in Shawnee are aging. Now the public works director is urging council members to dedicate more money to the city's stormwater system.
In Shawnee, more than half of the city's stormwater pipes are beyond their life expectancy, and a lot of them are showing their age.
"Once the bottom of the pipe rusts out of the pipe then the pipe begins to buckle and close up, that's where we get our failures," Doug Whitacre, the public works director for the city of Shawnee, said.
He adds there have been many close calls. Not so long ago, the city shut down Quivira Road near 73rd Street. Crews spent $200,000 to replace the stormwater pipes because the roadway was on the verge collapsing.
Currently, the city is spending $1 million to repair the stormwater pipe on Holliday Drive near I-435 after Whitacre crews noticed a dip in the road. Left alone, it could have been catastrophic.
"Unfortunately for stormwater piping, it's out of sight out of mind, and people don't realize it but it still has to be maintained," Whitacre said.
Recently he presented three alternatives to the city council to fix the problem:
- One would replace all of the aging pipes at the cost of $114 million over 20 years.
- The second one at a cost of $98 million over two decades would reduce emergency repairs.
- The third alternative worth $48 million over 20 years would try to maintain and have money to do the emergency repairs.
The city is moving away from metal for its stormwater pipes to concrete and plastic material to increase life expectancy.
"They recognize that there is a situation and we need to address it, I just think that there is a behemoth to try and figure out how do we address it at this point," Whitacre said.
The director's three alternatives are expected to be considered during city budget talks over the summer.
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Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
