Major water main valve replaced in Troy

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — At the Eddy Lane Pump station, Mayor Carmella Mantello announced that the first phase of replacing a severely corroded section of Troy’s water main line has been completed.  Crews installed a new water main valve, which will allow the city to continue with the larger project of replacing a 30-inch water main pipe at the location. The pipe’s condition was so bad it was described as a “ticking time bomb”.

“Employees actually said that if you took just a regular hammer and banged it against this pipe, it would rupture,” said Mayor Mantello.

On January 5th the mayor declared a public emergency after she and the Department of Public Utilities were alerted to the leaking of pipes, valves, and pumps at the station just two days earlier. The leakage had been going on for about a year and a half, causing severe corrosion. The mayor’s office says the current pipe’s failure would have been catastrophic. It would have stopped the flow of H20 to over 100,000 people in not just Troy but surrounding areas like Lansingburgh and North Central.

“If it did occur, you’re going to wipe our Troy Housing Authority, the complex below us affordable housing,” said the Mayor.

“This 30-inch line is fed directly by gravity from the plant so that’s a substantial amount of water, and it certainly would take out a good portion of this plant and a lot of the structures down below” added city engineer Russ Reeves.

There was a shiny blue coat of paint on the pipes at the station. It’s not decorative, it serves a preventative purpose.

“All the pipes above here I’ve just been painted with direct to metal marine base paint to reduce the opportunity for further corrosion” added Reeves.

This is just a small step, in a larger, more complicated process. The second phase of this project is replacing the current 500-horsepower water main pump with one more powerful 700-horsepower pump. It’s a process that will have to be completed in 12 hours to maintain ideal water pressure.