Relief is on the way for homeowners in West Hartford after weeks of dealing with the effects of a nasty sewer backup which flooded basements and part of their street. The Metropolitan District held a meeting with those affected Thursday to provide an update and support.
Thursday night officials said Linbrook Road could be back to normal by the end of the month. The road has been full of activity as crews worked to repair the damage from the blockage and flooding on Oct. 3. The constant racket and the jumble of equipment lining the street have just added to the recent misery for neighbors.
Crews will be out starting next Wednesday to finish the fix on the sewer line and soon after all the equipment can be taken out.
“The stress has taken a toll on all of us,” said resident Kelly Proulx.
Proulx said her home was one of about two dozen affected by a sewage backup on the street about two weeks ago.
Since then they’ve dealt with cleaning their basements which were flooded, as well as crews trying to repair the line.
“The underlying worry is always there. I think anxiety has been pretty high on this street because we really don’t know what the next steps are,” Proulx said.
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Thursday was a chance to get some answers from MDC.
And one big question was what exactly went wrong?
“We don’t know yet. We’re testing the material,” explained MDC CEO Scott Jellison.
Jellison believes there was some type of problem with pipe liner that was being installed. Liners support aging pipes and is cheaper than a full replacement. Now crews will insert a different version of the liner where the failure took place.
Jellison said they don’t believe this will happen again.
“We’re very confident. We have installed 200 miles of this type of liner,” he said.
Many homeowners expressed satisfaction with how MDC and the town are handling the issue.
But some are still nervous about the future, including longtime resident Sheila Ward.
“They’re trying to reassure us they’ve done a lot of these liners and this is the first time there’s been a problem. So, hopefully it’s some weird fluke and we don’t need to worry,” Ward said.
MDC estimates this repair will cost more than $1 million, including helping out homeowners with cleanup and replacing items. It hopes to hold the contractor of the project responsible for the cost.
