Railroad Street sewer repairs. Take 2. Lights, camera, action.

Ironton officials had hoped bringing in a sewer camera would help assess the severity of another collapse on Railroad Street, but just like in the movies, it will require more than one take to get it right.

A Columbus firm came to Ironton Friday to attempt to clean a 180-foot section of the brick sewer line and run a camera through it to determine why an 8-foot by 10-foot section of blacktop between Fifth and Sixth streets collapsed - just a few feet from where repairs of a previous cave-in ended.

Mission accomplished? Far from it.

"It did not go well at because of the volume of debris in the line," City Engineer Phil Biggs said of the work Friday. "There was a tremendous volume of debris - brick, rock, gravel and at least 8 inches of dirt."

Biggs said they ran into multiple problems including an equipment malfunction and hesitancy by the professionals to risk damage to their camera. They ran the machine through about half of the 30-inch sewer line that was built in 1897, but only cleaned approximately 30 -feet of the 180-foot line.

The visit wasn't a total waste as they used the vacuum truck to work elsewhere in the city. The project probably will cost the city only $2,000, Biggs said.

So they will try again Monday with the Mr. Rooter company from Wheelersburg set to bring a camera. It will be mounted on Styrofoam and floated downstream from the hole to Fifth Street in hopes that it will provide a better picture of what caused the second collapse, Biggs said.

"Hopefully, we can get a good indication of what we need to do," Biggs said. "Of the 90 feet we saw, it was not in terrible condition although there were some failure points and debris."

The problem began last December when a section of the street, approximately 16-feet by 12-feet, caved-in because the brick sewer line collapsed and undermined the ground. The hole was excavated to allow for the repairs that wrapped up earlier this year.

The Ohio Public Works Commission provided the city with $83,535 towards the approximately $90,000 project to repair the previous collapse. City officials hope some additional monies will be available through the state agency, but until they can see the extent of the problem, cost estimates are simply shots in the dark.