Pipe Bursting in Upland

Upland was laid out in the 1880s as the northern reach of the Ontario colony, and Euclid Avenue, with its double row of pepper trees and its historic streetcar median, still runs straight up from the valley floor to the base of the mountains. The neighborhoods on either side of it, from the downtown grid around Second Avenue north to Foothill Boulevard, were built largely between 1900 and the 1930s. Postwar tracts filled in to the east and west through the 1960s, and newer subdivisions from the 1970s onward climbed north toward the 210 freeway. Above the city line, San Antonio Heights spreads across the foothill slope with large estate lots and long private driveways.

What all of these neighborhoods share is the ground beneath them: the cobbly alluvial fan of San Antonio Creek, which makes any open trench a slow and expensive undertaking. Trenchless sewer repair avoids most of that digging while addressing the root-choked clay laterals that are the norm in the older parts of town. The regional sewer lining service area describes the wider coverage; this page focuses on Upland.

Fan soils, old clay, and long foothill runs

The soil is sand and gravel packed around rounded cobbles and boulders that get larger and more frequent toward the mountains. It drains fast, does not swell, and offers little cohesion, so a leaking joint washes out its own bedding and the pipe sags. Cobbles in the backfill bear on pipe and eventually crack it. Hot, dry summers push roots toward any moisture, and Upland's mature canopy of pepper trees, camphors, magnolias, oaks, and sycamores has had a century to find the joints.

Pipe follows the housing era. The 1900s through 1930s homes near Euclid have vitrified clay laterals with mortar joints, laid shallow, usually from raised foundations with cast-iron building drains. The 1940s through 1960s houses continued with clay, with Orangeburg fiber pipe in some tracts and cast iron under the slabs that became standard late in that period. ABS plastic took over in the 1970s and serves the newer neighborhoods near the 210, where the typical failure is a cobble-cracked section or a settlement belly rather than roots. San Antonio Heights spans all of those eras on lots where the lateral may run more than a hundred feet, drop steeply, and pass under terraces and retaining walls.

Which method fits which problem

Start with hydro jetting to clear roots and scale, then a camera inspection and a surface locate with depth readings. In Upland the locate is doubly important because it shows where cobbles would make a pit expensive and, in the Heights, how far the lateral actually runs.

• CIPP lining is the primary tool for the historic core's clay and for long foothill runs: a resin-saturated liner is installed from a cleanout, follows the pipe through bends and grade changes, and cures into a continuous jointless pipe. The guide to cured-in-place pipe explains the material and the curing in plain language.
• Pipe bursting fits Orangeburg, collapsed clay, and runs with pronounced bellies. It needs a pit at each end, which the crew places to avoid the worst cobbles and the root zones of protected trees.
• Sectional point repair fits a single cobble-cracked section of ABS or one broken clay joint under a driveway.
• Spin-cast lining fits cast-iron building drains under slabs and the larger lines serving downtown commercial buildings and the shopping centers along Foothill and Mountain Avenue.

For how a crew sequences the work from the first camera run through reinstating branch connections and the final video, see the process behind a trenchless repair.

Permits, locating, and responsibility

Inside the city, plumbing and encroachment permits come from the City of Upland, which owns the collection mains and sends flow to the Inland Empire Utilities Agency regional system. San Antonio Heights is unincorporated and goes through San Bernardino County Land Use Services, with sewer service varying by street. The owner is responsible for the lateral from the building to the connection at the public main, including any portion under the parkway or street, and right-of-way work requires an encroachment permit and traffic control. Every excavation starts with a DigAlert 811 notification and utility marks. Upland has no citywide point-of-sale sewer inspection, but buyers of historic homes routinely request a sewer scope. Work near the Euclid Avenue trees should respect the city's tree protection standards.

What an estimate visit covers

Expect a camera run, a surface locate with depths, attention to trees, slope, and hardscape, and a written scope that names the method, footage, and access points. Keep the video and the sketch.

Pipe Bursting in Upland

How pipe bursting works

A steel cable is threaded through the old sewer line from a pit at one end to a pit at the other. A cone-shaped bursting head, with new high-density polyethylene pipe fused to it, is pulled through by a hydraulic unit. The head splits the old clay or cast iron outward into the soil and the new pipe follows in the same alignment at the same depth. The result is a single fused length of pipe with no joints for roots to find.

When bursting is the right call

• Collapsed sections — a liner needs a host pipe to hold its shape; a collapsed run has none.
• Bellies — a low spot that holds water stays a low spot after lining. Bursting lays new pipe on a fresh bed.
• Undersized lines — bursting can upsize a 3-inch lateral to 4 inches; lining slightly reduces diameter.
• Badly deformed pipe — Orangeburg that has flattened, or cast iron with most of its bottom gone.

What the job looks like

One pit at the house or cleanout, one at the property line or the street connection, each a few feet square. Utilities that cross within a foot or two of the sewer path are located and potholed first. The pull takes an hour or two; the whole job, including fusing, connections, inspection and backfill, is usually one day.

Permits and the street

If the downstream pit is in the sidewalk, parkway or street, a right-of-way permit and restoration to city standards are required in addition to the plumbing permit. If the connection at the main is replaced, the city inspects it before the pit closes. Confirm who is handling this before work starts.

More trenchless services in Upland

Questions we hear in Upland