Mayor suggests replacing old water pipes
Mayor Steve Noble suggested that more than century-old water pipes be replaced when work begins at the proposed site of a new traffic roundabout.
Noble’s suggestion comes after he and the Common Council agreed to borrow $800,000 to install new city-owned sewer pipes at the Col. Chandler Drive/ Broadway/Albany Avenue proposed roundabout site.
“I recognize that there are a number priority of water infrastructure projects already in the works that the Water Board must consider,” Noble said in an email. “However, I feel that making planned improvements to our infrastructure, rather than due to emergency, is the best step forward whenever possible.”
Noble is a member of the Board of Water Commissioners.
The state Department of Transportation plans to construct the roundabout starting in October 2018, and have it completed by the fall of 2020.
“The (Common) Council and I have both signed off on the sewer replacement as part of DOT’s (department of transportation) project,” Noble said. “I expect that the Water Board will review this request at their Dec. 20th meeting and will discuss the potential costs of replacement now versus later.”
In late November, Water Department Superintendent Judith Hansen said that the Board of Water Commissioners was “struggling” to make a decision about whether to replace old water pipes where the new roundabout is set to be built.
Hansen said replacing the underground pipes where Albany Avenue, Broadway and Col. Chandler Drive come together would cost about $1.1 million. Some of the pipes date to the late 1800s.
Borrowing the money necessary to carry out the work would result in water users’ rates rising 1.5 to 2 percent, Hansen said. That would be addition to an expected rate hike of 9 to 10 percent if the Common Council and mayor authorize borrowing $6 million for state-mandated repairs at the city’s Cooper Lake reservoir in Woodstock.
“The (water) board is strug-
gling to make the decision (whether) to replace our infrastructure as a result of the state Department of Transportation roundabout project,” Hansen said in a November email. “Although some of these mains are among our oldest, we have no indications that they are leaking or underperforming in any way.”
Hansen said it’s likely there will be some damage to water mains during the roundabout construction.
“What we can be fairly certain is that, as a result of the road construction over this infrastructure ... our mains will be compromised
as a result of the project and it is likely that the Kingston Water Department will need to make repairs to these mains during and following construction,’ Hansen wrote. “Clearly, that is a less-than-ideal scenario, and, if resources were unlimited, I am certain that the board would elect to replace the mains. However, resources are not unlimited.”
At Cooper Lake, the city’s main water source, the state-mandated work includes repairing the dam, improving piping and upgrading the spillway, which fell out of compliance with safety standards when the state Department of Environmental Conservation revised regulations.
The plan calls for spending
$1.7 million for the dam repairs, $1.3 million for the spillway improvements and $2.7 million for piping and infrastructure improvements.
The city has not needed to use the spillway often because Cooper Lake generally is filled by a piping system that draws water from the Mink Hollow Stream.
And while there is no immediate risk to the dam, Kingston officials have said they are concerned that if the it did break, the contents of Copper Lake would pour into the Sawkill Creek, which travels through the towns of Woodstock, Kingston and Saugerties before emptying into the Lower Esopus Creek, which empties into the Hudson River at Saugerties.