Austin, Texas is one of the fastest growing cities in Texas and in the United States. Residential and commercial building are at an all-time high as a result of the exponential population growth.  City officials continue to work to keep up with the pace of the growing infrastructure requirements.

A booming suburb northeast of Austin is Hutto, Texas. It went from a population of 1,451 in 2000 to nearly 30,000 by 2022. The water and sewer lines for Hutto just weren’t large enough to handle the increased capacity.

Hutto recently installed a new water line to service Hutto and areas around North Austin. They knew that it needed to last, needed to be properly sized for the demand, and that it was easily adaptable for future line additions and taps. They chose ductile iron pipe to be their pipe of choice for the growth now and into the future. Ductile iron pipe’s proven long lifespan, and ability to be easily adapted to new lines, fittings, taps, and changes in the water infrastructure needs made it the easy choice.

Due to thrust restraint requirements on the project that can result from changes in elevation and changes in direction, it would be necessary to use restrained joint ductile iron pipe in certain areas. U.S. Pipe’s HDSS® pipe was chosen to address this need.

Austin Water added HDSS to their Standard Product List in 2020. For this project, Hutto, the utility district, and the design engineer saw the benefit of using HDSS and included it in the project specification. The HDSS restrained joint pipe from U.S. Pipe provides a higher pressure rating and deflection capability that our TR FLEX® could not meet. Another advantage is its ease of assembly that is also safer. Utilizing one slot at the 12 o’clock position instead of the four slots on TR FLEX, it keeps installers from reaching near the bottom of the pipe while in the trench and allows for an axial lock around the circumference of the pipe. Stronger, safer, and easier makes HDSS an easy choice.

The project in Hutto was 56,000 feet of ductile iron pipe. 8,500 feet of it was 30” HDSS restrained joint. The remainder was our 30” TYTON JOINT push-on pipe. This new water line will serve the residents of Hutto and North Austin for decades to come. And in a few more decades, we wonder how big will that area will be by then?