Release:

The City of Valdosta’s Utilities Department is in the process of completing a water line replacement on McArthur Drive, where they have upsized the existing two-inch line to a six-inch line. Once finished, this street will be the second area completed in an upsizing program that the department put in place nearly two years ago. Sheldon Irvin, Central Line Superintendent, discusses why this program was necessary and its benefits to city residents.

According to Irvin, McArthur Drive is a prime example of a two-inch line at its worse. A two-inch line is an out-of-date approach meaning that the pipe has been in place for an extended period of time. The city has made many attempts to repair the pipes as damage occurs, but the Utilities Department came to the common consensus that all two-inch lines simply needed to be upsized. “The existing two-inch piping throughout the city has been there for who knows how long. Over the years, we have done a lot of repairs, but they needed to be upsized. So we started an upsizing program that will upgrade all of the two-inch lines to six-inch lines,” said Irvin.

The department began by mapping out where all the two-inch lines were located throughout the city, then developed a program that would allow them to do a multi-year upgrade. Currently, in its second year, the program takes a worst to best approach, focusing on the most damaged lines first. Once the lines are replaced, each residence on that street will be tied into the new system. This means that all the old lines that connect into the meter box will have to be shut off, and the new lines will have to be turned on. For McArthur Drive, the system cut off at the dead end, but the department has looped it over to the adjacent road making for an entirely new system.

With the lines being located underground, it is difficult to determine how long each project will take to complete. Crews can run into several issues once they dig up the road to see what is underneath, and weather also plays a hand. However, though tedious, this process is well worth the wait as it will significantly improve water pressure and fire protection services for these areas.

Once the crew completes all the tie-ins for McArthur Drive, it is expected to be completed within the following few weeks, weather permitting.

For more information, please contact the Utilities Department at 229-259-3594.