Planning underway for $3.7M project
State grant to fund work to water mains, standpipe
WATERVLIET, N.Y. >> City officials continue to move forward with a plans to improve drinking water quality throughout the community.
The city submitted an application in 2015 for a drinking water grant to the state Environmental Facilities Corp. and the Department of Health and was notified in AUgust 2016 that they were awarded $2,262,384 for a project with a total cost of $3,770,640. Mayor Michael Manning said the city financed its roughly $1.5 million share of the cost.
The project calls for $256,573 to be spent to find and fix any possible leaks in transmission lines and provide better access to the transmission main that runs from the city’s reservoir in Guilderland to its filtration plant on Route 155 in Latham. Another $387,589 is earmarked for rehabilitation of the standpipe water tower at the northwest corner of the city, including cleaning and repainting the tower, as well as other upgrades.
“Then, the balance is for upgrading and updating water mains,” Manning said Friday afternoon. “Work will be done to 12 water mains at 11,400 linear feet, and that includes 10 valves and an emergency interconnection with Menands.”
City officials said the bulk of the water main work will be done along 3rd Avenue from 4th Street north to Broadway.
Manning warned those construction costs are only estimates until the council approves a final construction agreement in the near future.
The City Council approved an agreement with Weston & Sampson of Rensselaer for engineering services that will include design work for the project. Manning said he hopes to see work begin later this year, with the grant helping the city do needed work faster than if would have if it had to fund the whole project itself.
“To get a grant of this magnitude is important because other-
wise, we would have to finance it all ourselves,” explained Manning. “The method for doing that previously has been kind of chipping away at it, so this allows us to do a much larger chunk in one time and allows us to do it sooner then we could before.”
Manning said the work is much needed and will benefit the entire city.
“By replacing mains, we reduce the risk of having a
delivery problem that can range anywhere from an inconvenience for the water main breaks where people can’t get water for a little bit to a public safety issue with a fire hydrant,” said Manning.
Manning said the city will continue to explore interconnection service agreements with neighboring communities, something they’ve been looking into for a few years.
“The interconnect idea is something that we want to do and we want to be able to be interconnected with all of our neighbors,” said Manning.