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The Altoona Water Authority Thursday voted to apply for a $7.5 million low-interest loan from Pennvest to pay for replacement of 14,000 feet of problematic water main on Logan Boulevard.
The authority is undertaking the project now so that it will occur before PennDOT's planned repaving of the boulevard -- and not afterward, which would result in damage to the new road surface.
The line replacement project was on the authority's long-term plan anyway, and PennDOT has postponed the repaving to give the authority time -- and time for a gas company project as well -- to protect the proposed new road surface, according to authority officials.
The thin-walled cast-iron pipe lined with cement installed in the 1950s has broken many times over the last dozen years, causing damage to the road and to nearby property, according to General Manager Mark Perry.
The new pipe will be heavy plastic, most of it 12 inches in diameter, except for a stretch of eight-inch diameter pipe.
It will run from Plank Road to Oak Knoll Road in Hollidaysburg.
Pennvest is likely to consider the loan request at its April meeting, according to authority controller Gina DeRubeis.
The authority originally planned to advertise the job with an option for contractors to bid on installation via open trench or directional drilling, according to Perry.
But because restoration of the road after installation with directional drilling would be 1.5 million cheaper than the 2.1 million cost after open trench installation, the authority now plans to advertise for directional drilling only, according to Mike Bianconi, director of water operations.
With horizontal drilling, workers dig an initial launch pit and an initial receiving pit as far as 500 feet ahead. They use a drill that sits on the surface of the road behind the launch pit, with drill shafts that flex downward to the required depth before going horizontal, according to Perry and Bianconi. When the first drill shaft goes as far as possible, workers disengage the collar on the drill rig, attach another length of shaft, re-engage the collar and continue, repeating the process until the drill bit emerges at the receiving pit. At the receiving pit, workers fuse together approximately 20-foot lengths of the HDPE pipe, attach the end of the pipe to the drill shaft, then withdraw the shaft using the drill rig, so the pipe is pulled through toward the launch pit. As with the drill shaft, the pipe has enough flex to go from the road level to the depth of the hole under the road. Workers fuse additional piping as needed as the drilling rig retracts the pipe, until the end of it reaches the launch pit. Then workers move the drill rig forward and the receiving pit becomes the next launch pit.
The PennDOT project is expected to begin in March 2025 and end in December of that year, according to the PennDOT District 9 website. The total cost of the project is estimated to be about $3 million, according to the website.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.