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LaSalle staff say sewer pipe support failed on Route 6 bridge; temporary pumping in place while engineers design repairs
Summary
City officials reported a failure of the sanitary sewer support on the Route 6 bridge over the Little Vermilion River. Staff are pumping sewage to holding tanks, coordinating with IDOT and IEPA, and aiming to reuse existing pipe where feasible to limit costs.
LaSalle — City staff told the LaSalle City Council on May 1 that a support failure on the sanitary sewer that crosses the Little Vermilion River on U.S. Route 6 caused the pipe to hang and partially separate from its hangers, prompting immediate temporary measures and an engineering-led repair plan.
Public Works staff reported the east-end support gave way after corrosion developed within the hanger assemblies. The city stopped flow from the Illinois cement lift station into that line, rerouted flow to holding tanks and is using tanker trucks to remove sewage several times per day while engineers design a repair. The city’s structural engineer is developing stainless-steel saddle hangers to support the existing pipe from the outside so crews can avoid removing and replacing long pipe runs, which the city estimated would cost at least $200,000 for pipe alone.
City staff said they met Thursday with the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and local emergency management officials. The structural engineer is coordinating with IDOT’s bridge office to fast-track a permit because the failure is an emergency. Staff also are inspecting other utility crossings, including the bridge over I‑39, to check for similar deterioration.
Public Works said the failure developed where salt spray reached the hanger assemblies and migrated into the pipe insulation, accelerating internal corrosion of the strap hardware. The repair design calls for stainless-steel supports that will rest on visible saddles outside the insulation and should be easier to inspect and resist salt corrosion.
The city said there is no state or federal emergency funding immediately available; the work will be paid from the sewer fund. Officials said the city has capacity in the sewer fund to proceed but that the work requires fast permitting and careful inspection to reuse as much pipe as feasible.
"We're hoping to use most, if not all, of the pipe we have and leave what's hanging and support it with the new hangers in place so we're not having to take it down," a Public Works speaker said at the meeting. That speaker added city inspectors and the bridge office had not observed pre-failure signs during routine inspections.
Council members asked about design visibility and next steps; staff said the replacement supports would be stainless steel with saddles so they would be visible and less prone to collapse the insulation. Staff said tankers are being run to manage flow, typically four to six tanker loads per day, until the repair is completed.
The city did not provide a specific target date for completion; staff said scheduling depends on design approvals and IDOT permitting. Costs beyond the pipe material estimate were not specified at the meeting.
