Mykolaivvodokanal have given assurances that the repaired culvert in Soliani will last for up to 50 years: «There won’t be any problems there»

Mykolaivvodokanal has dismissed the possibility of further incidents at the culvert in the Solyani neighbourhood.

This was stated during a briefing by the director of the utility company, Hennadii Iziumov, according to NikVesti.

The construction of a new culvert would require a separate project and significant funding, the official said, assuring that there is currently no need for this.

He added that following the culvert’s repair, the company carried out additional corrective work.

«A new project is needed to build a new culvert. That would require a significant amount of funding. Today, there is no problem with the water supply to these neighbourhoods (Soliani, Ternivka and Pivnichnyi — ed.). We do not see any problems. We have carried out additional corrective measures, and we have two lines operating there, meaning there is also a backup. We are fully supplying the residents of this area with water; there will be no problems there,» said Hennadii Iziumov.

The head of the water utility also noted that the repaired pipeline has a significant service life remaining.

«The service life of this pipeline is almost 50 years. Essentially, it is housed within a sleeve, inside the old pipeline. We do not currently see any potential problems there,» he added.

Accident on the culvert in Soliani

As is known, in Mykolaiv, due to an accident on the water main on 11 January, the water supply was cut off in the Soliani, Pivnichnyi and Ternivka neighbourhoods. Special trolleybuses were deployed to provide people with water.

Later, Mykolaivvodokanal stated that the culvert’s service life had already expired, so a simple repair would not suffice. According to preliminary estimates, approximately 190 metres of 350-millimetre-diameter pipe at the riverbed needed replacing.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych announced that they plan to «patch up» the culvert for 4 million hryvnias. However, this will only be a temporary solution to the problem, he said.

The full reconstruction of a new culvert across the Inhul River has been estimated at nearly 47 million hryvnias.

The water supply was successfully restored on 15 January by the company «Vik-Technologies» in collaboration with the municipal enterprise «Mykolaivvodokanal». In total, around one million hryvnias were spent on the repair work.

Earlier, the head of the company «ViK-Technologies», Oleksandr Zhak, stated that he had been proposing to repair the damaged culvert in the Soliani neighbourhood since 2017, but had been unable to secure a contract for several years.