Another collapse reported at Shelbyville flume

SHELBYVILLE, TN (WSMV) –Another collapse has been reported at a large underground pipe in Shelbyville.Councilman Henry Fieldhaus said a portion of the flume collapsed Sunday morning, between the fire and police stations, likely due to heavy rains over the weekend.

The collapse has caused the fire station, police department and county jail to be without water.

The flume leads the city’s storm water to the Duck River. It’s been in place since 1962.

There have been two previous collapses at the flume this year; one in June and one in January.

“The replacement tube has been manufactured, it’s on a truck on its way here, and we had anticipated starting the replacement process for the first two failures areas tomorrow,” said Jay Johnson, city manager of Shelbyville.

That work was set to cost the city $1.6 million, according to the city manager.

With Sunday’s collapse, the cost can only go up from there.

Fieldhaus says he would like to look into the possibility of getting federal help, by having the part of the flume declared a disaster area.

As of Sunday night the collapse has not been ruled weather related because there is a lot of assessing and investigating that still has to be done.

“This is an extraordinary event and by all indications it was not lack of maintenance or that the tube was in trouble, it appears to be an external event that created this problem,” said Johnson.

Copyright 2015 WSMV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.