Click Link for full video: Troy breaks ground on project to replace century old water transmission lines

By Harrison Grubb
Originally Published: May 10, 2021 4:14pm

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – The City of Troy officially broke ground on phase one of an infrastructure project to replace the city’s century old water transmission lines Monday.

“We’re replacing the water transmission lines from the reservoir to the water treatment plant. This plant serves over 130,000 customers every day,” Troy Mayor Patrick Madden said. With Monday’s ceremonial breaking ground proceedings, crews are set to begin replacing the old transmission lines.

“You don’t want to see one of those go, because there’s really no plan B, there’s no backup plan. This is an investment into the future,” Madden says.

Phase one of the project includes installing around eight miles of piping, which are made of materials to help them last upwards of 200 years.
“So that any sort of corrosive type material can’t make its way into the pipe, which is what often makes them fail,” Greg Bold, the project manager, explains.

Bold is also a Halfmoon resident, living in one of 10 communities served by Troy’s reservoir. He’s experienced the issues of an aging system firsthand, after a massive main break (made of Riveted Steel) in Lansingburgh in 2016 spilled eight million gallons of water into parts of the city, also shutting down the water supply for surrounding communities. “It seems like in this day in age, we shouldn’t be out of water. You have so many people that, not only didn’t they have drinking water, there was no pressure there for a fire. That’s a big deal,” Bold says.

The City of Troy chose U.S. Pipe ductile iron with Metallized Zinc coating. This coating protects the pipe against corrosion, and from our tests we estimate the pipe will easily last over 100 years. Zinc metallizing with a high purity zinc wire has been utilized for external corrosion control of iron pipe for over 50 years, and supplied by U.S. Pipe for over 20 years.

While most publications on metallic zinc coated iron pipe are based on experience and case histories from England and Europe, it should be noted that metallic zinc is, and has been used extensively for external corrosion protection of ductile iron pipe by China, India, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Korea, Japan, and others. Zinc coating for external corrosion protection of ductile iron pipe is such a recognized and established worldwide practice that there is an international standard, ISO 8179-1(Ductile Iron Pipes-External zinc-based coating-Part 1: Metallic Zinc with Finishing Layer) which was first issued in 1985 (ISO, 2004).

Click here to see a video of why Metallized Zinc Coating should be used.

Photos provided by Kenneth C. Crowe II
Link:Troy starts $40M project to replace lines to Tomhannock Reservoir