The second and final phase of the long-awaited rehabilitation of the Swifts Beach sewer pipe that collapsed in 2016 is underway and the construction team has successfully implemented the first use of the asbestos pipe scribing and encapsulation tool designed, developed and brought to market by local businessman Danny Warren. 

Warren, of Danny Warren Consulting and bid holder for the repairs, first presented this tool to residents of Wareham in a meeting held in June 2023 after previous plans to repair the pipe were rejected by residents. 

The challenge with this collapsed pipe was that drawings from the 1970s indicated that the piping was all made from asbestos. This meant 289 feet of the piping would have to be dug up for an expensive disposal process all the way in Idaho, but Warren’s plan prevented the town from needing to take those steps.

Warren’s solution included a special resin that expands and hardens when it touches water. He said this would be used to prevent asbestos from the old pipe from escaping. 

However, it was discovered during Phase One that many of the pipes were made from steel rather than asbestos as the drawings had indicated, forgoing the need for the special tool and costing the team an additional $270,000. 

When the team got to Phase Two, it initially found more steel piping, but asbestos was eventually discovered in some pipes and the team was finally able to use the newly patented tool by the end of January.

Warren said the machine allowed the crew to dig 275 feet in one day — without the machine the crew can only dig approximately 26 feet a day.

Wareham is the first town in the world to implement this tool and strategy for taking care of asbestos piping, according to Warren.

The project remains on schedule and is set to be completed by the end of February. The road will be paved under a separate contract.