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Cleaning + Get AlertsA story from KGW.com this week features the Portland Water Bureau, which hired divers to go inside a 30-inch pipe underneath the Willamette River to perform a spot repair on a fractured water main.
According to the report, there are six water mains under the river that deliver millions of gallons of water per day to the city of Portland, Oregon. The main that was being repaired was shut down in December after a camera inspection discovered a leak.
Divers made the repair using a custom-made Link-Pipe PVC repair system from Link-Pipe Incorporated. The product is used for structural repair and sealing of man-accessible underground pipes.
The river is approximately 60 feet deep where divers had to make the underwater repair. The main, which is over a century old, should be operational sometime in April.
“The pipe basically lays in a very shallow trench on the river bottom,” Michael Stuhr, chief engineer for the Portland Water Bureau told KGW.com. “That’s how they installed those in 1913.”
Video from KGW.com shows members of the dive team preparing to enter the 30-inch pipe.