About 240 feet of failing stormwater drainpipe has opened a sinkhole in front of Highland Avenue United Methodist Church in Gardiner. Repairing it is expected to deplete the remaining funds the city has set aside for paving in the current budget year. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

GARDINER — Part of Highland Avenue is expected to be torn up before the end of the year to replace a 240-foot stretch of failing stormwater drainpipe.

The only sign of damage is a sinkhole that has opened up in front of the Highland Avenue United Methodist Church, marked by traffic cones. Fixing it will exhaust the remaining funds the city has set aside for paving in the current budget year.

Andrew Carlton, Gardiner city manager, said Wednesday a section of stormwater drainpipe has rotted from the bottom, and the city is seeking a contractor to replace it.

“It’s a pretty complicated project, not one we can do in-house,” Carlton said. “It will be a pretty expensive, unbudgeted-for project. What that will mean is that it will eat up our paving budget for the year.”

Some of the pipe is about 9 feet below the roadway, and the sides of the trench will have be shored up during construction. Carlton said the sidewalk will also have to be removed and rebuilt.

“It is just unsafe,” he said. “It’s washing away from underneath.”

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Reports of sinkholes and other stormwater-related damage have surfaced across the region.

Heavy rainfall Aug. 31 damaged a section of Winthrop Street in Hallowell, between Water and Second streets, prompting a partial road closure.

On the same day, a sinkhole opened in a section of parking lot off Arsenal Street in Augusta, the result of stormwater flowing through a corroded drainpipe and washing away sand and gravel that was filled about a week later by the Greater Augusta Utility District.

Less than a week later, the Augusta utility district filled a sinkhole that opened in a turning lane on Western Avenue, caused by damage to a brick manhole.

Gardiner city officials estimate the stormwater pipes on Highland Avenue were last replaced in the late 1980s or early 1990s, a project on which At-large City Councilor Tim Cusick worked as a public works employee at the time.

The pipes were not replaced when Highland Avenue was repaved in 2016 as part of a municipal partnership initiative with the Maine Department of Transportation.

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Gardiner Mayor Patricia Hart asked whether the state DOT would also take part in the repair because of that partnership. Carlton said it will not.

About $100,000 remains in the city’s budget for paving that city officials approved in June.

Carlton, who is also serving as interim director of the Department of Public Works after Jerry Douglass resigned for another job, said money was originally intended to be carried over into next year to expand what paving could be done.

“So this will limit the scope of what we’re able to do next year?”  District 3 City Councilor Colin Frey said.

Carlton said it would, unless money for paving is approved in the next fiscal year’s budget.

Cusick said by the time the budget is approved in June, paving contractors will be booked up and unable to take on more work in Gardiner.

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“We risk losing a year,” Cusick said.

Hart said that is one option. Another is to consider paying for paving by bonding, and he suggested scheduling a discussion for a City Council meeting in December.

Funding the city’s paving needs has been a topic of conversation by the City Council during over the past two budget cycles.

Anne Davis, who was serving as acting city manager during that period, urged city councilors to consider taking a longer view of how to pay for maintaining Gardiner’s streets, instead of reacting to annual paving needs.

To that end, a capital improvement plan has been in the works, but is now delayed with Douglass’ departure.

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