Town Replaces Water Line

FTLComm - Tisdale - Wednesday, June 13, 2001

Each summer two streets are completely over hauled and the original cast water lines are removed and replaced with plastic lines. This is a major disruption for the people on that street as they are without water for what often is as long as a week for the job to be completed. This project, because of the extremely dry conditions will see the people in this neighbourhood with their water back on by late today as the crew have swept down the street with few surprises. Removing twelve feet of street and replacing the water line can have some unexpected and time delaying incidents, sewer lines can get broken, services to homes can get uprooted and extra digging may have to occur to make sure that it is safe for the workers to get

down into the excavation. The cast iron pipe in this section of town is very old and some of it has been seriously corroded. The purpose of the replacement is to replace the aging pipe before it lets go and since that could be in the middle of winter a single repair then would cost more that to replace the entire street in the summer.

The digging conditions are extremely dry with the back hoe bringing up dust much of the time and the workers reported that it seems to be getting drier as they go further East. A rented packer is being used to compact the soil as it is backfilled. It will not be until August when the next street over will be given the same treatment.