Equipment purchased Monday by the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen will save the city time and money repairing cracks and breaks in city sewer lines, the city’s interim public works director said.

The board approved paying D&W Systems Sales Inc. of Clinton $8,884 for a product called Pipe Patch, a patching system that installs a fiberglass patch to the interior of a damaged sewer line to repair it. City purchasing director Tim Smith said the price covers the equipment to position and inflate the patch and two patches to repair 24- and 48-inch pipes.

He said other patches would be bought as needed. He said patches run from 6 inches to 48 inches, and the price depends on the size.

“This means we won’t have to dig up streets and relocate other utility lines to repair sewer line leaks,” interim public works director Garnet Van Norman said. “We have a video camera and a wash truck, so this is something that will work well for us.”

He said the repair process “is like putting a stent in an artery. It has an inflatable ring that you pull through the pipe to the crack. You inflate it inside the pipe and hold it until the patch cures, then deflate it and leave the patch. In the meantime, sewage can continue through the pipe.”

Van Norman said the system reduces the amount of time to repair damaged lines, and could eliminate hiring contractors to fix deeply buried lines. He said the city contracts work on sewer lines that are 8 feet down or deeper. He said the cost of hiring a contractor to do the work runs about $19,000 to $25,000, depending on the work.

Sewer superintendent Willie McCroy said a test patch was installed last week on a line under Indiana Avenue by sewer department employees and D&W representatives in about two hours without closing the street.

“Ordinarily, we would have had to bring out a backhoe, a work crew and start moving utility poles. It would take most of the day,” he said. “Now we can go to the manhole, pull the patch through and watch it with the video camera. This is going to save the city a lot of money.”