»In which we keep pace with the storms

After the romantic trip to Les Egouts de Paris, I have been thinking more about the ageing infrastructure in San Francisco -- and so has the city itself, which has mounted a publicity campaign to raise awareness of the deficiencies in San Francisco's sewers.

The storm drain capacity cannot keep pace with the growth in the city, and during periods of heavy rain many street corners will be under water. The City of San Francisco replaced some, but not all, of the miles of decaying pipe underground following the '06 earthquake; however, City records show a backlog of 70 miles of sewers that are undersized and require replacement. The Channel Force Main, a very large pipeline that transports much of the City’s wastewater has been broken and repaired three times in the last 16 years.

The photographs on San Francisco Sewers web site are instructive, if not terribly recent -- that in itself is a frightening indicator of how aged the pipes be.