Council adopts emergency contract to slip-line water main serving Cleveland Clinic Mercy

Canton City Council on a unanimous roll call vote adopted Ordinance 29, authorizing the director of public service to enter contracts and use emergency procurement procedures to repair a primary 8-inch water main that runs under Interstate 77 and supplies Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital.

An agency official from the public service/water department told council the department is asking to use emergency contracting because a primary feed runs beneath an interstate entrance ramp and recent leaks require immediate action. “This is something we don't do very often, but we are coming to you today asking to use the emergency contracting procedure,” the agency official said.

Water-department staff described the planned technique as a cured-in-place slip-lining: a custom-manufactured fabric liner injected with epoxy and fiberglass will be run through the existing 8-inch ductile iron pipe, cured by steam and pressure-tested. An agency official explained the liner is very thin — “the process we're using with the epoxy filled, the liner is only 5 millimeters thick” — and that the finished interior will be smoother than the existing pipe, increasing flow capacity despite the slight reduction in diameter.

City staff said the contractor Televac Environmental was manufacturing the liner and expected to mobilize the week of July 14, with a three-day schedule: camera inspection and cleaning on day one, slip-lining and steam cure on day two, and final end treatment and pressure testing on day three. Staff also noted the hospital has a smaller secondary feed that provides emergency redundancy but said the city will evaluate longer-term hydraulic options with the hospital after the immediate repair.

Council members pressed staff on longevity and alternatives, asking whether the slip-lining was effectively permanent and whether a new parallel feed should be created. An agency official said the slip-lining is considered a permanent, structurally sound repair commonly used by other communities and that longer-term loop or redundancy options would be evaluated with the hospital and fire department following the emergency work.

The ordinance passed by roll call (12 yeas). Council thanked the water department for the quick response and explanation. The repair is scheduled to begin the week of July 14; council recorded no dissent and the ordinance was adopted as emergency legislation.