LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen voted to have the sewer pipe on Sewall Street water blasted and treated to retard future roots from growing. They also agreed to pave the whole street Monday.

The board had requested a video inspection of the pipe be done before a decision was made to replace the pipe at an estimated cost of $50,000.

Sewer Department Superintendent Kent Mitchell said the inspection showed that the pipe is infected by roots but is structurally sound.

There was a similar problem on Pine Avenue several years ago, he said, and a tool was used along with high-pressure water blasting the roots out followed by treatment with RootX to kill the roots and retard them. It has been five years since the treatment was done and they haven’t been back to the site, he said.

Matt Timberlake of the Ted Berry Co. of Livermore, which conducted the pipe inspection, estimated that it would cost about $2,500 to do all of the line on Sewall Street and over the embankment, Mitchell said.

This is not a cure-all, he said, but it is a method that he expects to work for some time.

The town has several century-old sewer lines that are deteriorating and very limited money to fix them.

He recommended the root treatment and to pave the whole street to cover over the trench paving done on half the road when water lines were recently installed.