St. Paul sewage systems are getting a facelift.

The pipelines along Cleveland Avenue near the Highland Park neighborhood will be replaced this summer in a project to update St. Paul’s aging and fragile sewer systems, though the work won’t strongly affect St. Thomas traffic.

“It appears the majority of work is in the Highland Park neighborhood, which I don’t anticipate will affect very many of our students,” Amy Gage, St. Thomas’ neighborhood liaison, said.

The majority of St. Thomas’ commuter students live in the area immediately around campus in the Merriam Park and Macalester-Groveland neighborhoods, according to Gage, which are roughly a mile from where the pipeline construction will take place.

Most of the sewer systems are 50 to 125 years old and are in need of repairs, according to the St. Paul government website.

To reconstruct these pipelines, the Sewer Utility Division relies on a process called cured-in-place pipe renewal. CIPP liners are made of a resin-saturated felt tube with an outside coating of polyurethane, which allows for a strong, long-lasting liner to form within the pre-existing pipe.

This method is more cost-effective and less disruptive than the dig-and-replace method used in the past.

Cleveland Avenue has several pipeline projects underway, none of which are directly near St. Thomas. This summer, however, St. Thomas’ stretch of Cleveland Avenue will undergo a mill-and-overlay resurfacing process.

The exact dates for this project have not yet been determined, but Gage anticipates that the work will take place in July. This will pave the way for the addition of bike lanes.

Carolyn Meyer can be reached at cameyer@stthomas.edu.