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Port Hueneme completes 4,200-foot sewer force main replacement after emergency failure
Summary
City officials say crews finished replacing an aging asbestos-concrete sewer force main with a new HDPE line pulled through an abandoned Oxnard host pipe, completing the work faster than expected and with minimal public disruption.
Port Hueneme city officials told the City Council on March 3 that the long-running emergency repair to a failed sewer force main is finished and in service.
The project replaced roughly 4,200 linear feet of a failing asbestos-concrete pipe (ACP) that had been corroded by hydrogen sulfide. Public Works Director Fred Camarillo said the city installed a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) main inside an existing, abandoned 24-inch host pipeline acquired from the City of Oxnard, then backfilled the void with lightweight foam concrete to stabilize the assembly.
The work followed an unplanned failure that produced a sinkhole and prompted an immediate repair. The line carries roughly a million gallons of sewage a day and serves base and city areas that cannot be taken offline, Camarillo said. City staff and contractor Blois Construction staged temporary bypass piping and vacuum trucks to move flow during nighttime tie-ins, allowing the contractor to do the most disruptive work outside peak hours.
Public Works Manager Brian Famenco described how crews fused a long length of 16-inch HDPE and pulled it through the Oxnard host pipe. City engineers televised the host pipe before purchase and confirmed it was serviceable. Camarillo said the council had authorized the city manager to act quickly when the emergency began; the council later ratified procurement and interagency agreements with Oxnard. Oxnard’s unused pipe was sold to Port Hueneme for about $20,000, according to city staff.
The city reported 57 working days of construction with three night shifts. Camarillo said the contractor completed the job ahead of a previously projected April completion; the new HDPE line is expected to have a one-hundred-year design life.
Council members pressed staff on environmental and public-safety safeguards during construction. A resident asked whether soils or construction debris on a staging area had been sampled; the city manager said staff would follow up with the resident and that cleanup was underway.
City staff credited multiple partners for completing the job: City of Oxnard (host pipe), Blois Construction (prime contractor), Patriot (vacuum/trucking), Confoam (foam fill), NV5 (engineering/soils), National Plant Services (inspection), and several local suppliers. Staff also acknowledged coordination with Naval Base Ventura County because the base accounts for a large proportion of flow through the line.
Camrillo said the abandoned ACP was filled with the lightweight foam to eliminate voids and reduce the risk of future sinkholes. The city will bring a separate agenda item on CCTV inspection equipment (a video-inspection truck) to improve the city’s ability to monitor other aging pipelines.
The city manager said the approach — using the Oxnard host pipe — minimized street closures and other public impacts compared with fully open-cut construction along Ventura Road.
Council members thanked public works staff and the contractor for the rapid, low-impact completion. The city will provide an itemized project closeout and final invoices when all contractor claims are resolved.
