PUC pulling up century-old water pipes downtown

Public Utilities Commission of the City of Sault Ste. Marie agreed Wednesday to add $328,000 to this year's capital budget, allowing replacement this summer of some old and breakage-prone sections of water main near the St. Marys River.

The newly approved work includes replacement of about 200 metres of 100-year-old pipes between Huron and Hudson streets.

That upgrade is intended to service SIS Group's planned new train station on the former St. Marys Paper Corp. site.

In 1918, the Sault's new Public Utilities Commission approved Huron Street as the location for a combination pump station and electric substation with six electric water pumps – three for domestic use and three for firefighting.

Also included in the projects approved yesterday are water system improvements along Bay Street and relocation of a water main on John Street to accommodate completion of the Fort Creek Aqueduct.

Much of the Bay Street work will be done on old and breakage-prone original six-inch water mains near Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre and Suncor Energy Inc.'s former tank farm site just west of Purvis Marine, taking advantage of this summer's rebuilding of Bay Street.

"We try not to inconvenience customers twice with road closures," PUC chief executive officer Rob Brewer told SooToday after Wednesday's meeting.

"So when the city is doing a reconstruction and they're already digging up a road, then any of the infrastructure that needs replacement on the PUC side in the near future, we try to do at the same time," Brewer said.

"Because they're opening it up, it's the least cost for us for us to actually do it once it's open. And it's the least inconvenience to customers."

"We're having a high rate of water main breaks. We're going to take advantage of the fact that the construction's ongoing and try to replace it."

"On Bay Street, it's not the entire road we're going to do, just where we've had the history."

"They're not going all the way down to the pipe level. In certain situations where we've had a history of significant breaks, we're going to do the additional digging and get down to where those pipes are and replace them," Brewer told us.

Redundant six-inch pipe on the south side of Bay Street will be removed to reduce break frequency underneath the new roadway.

Some 10-inch pipe under Bay Street is standing up better than the six-inch mains and will be considered for lining in the future.

The additional work will cost considerably more than the $328,000 set aside for it on at Wednesday's PUC meeting.

For example, the Bay Street and John Street projects are projected to cost a total of $776,719 and the Huron Street water mains are among $318,246 in added customer-demand projects.

The additional cash will be drawn from a number of sources, including $480,571 from planned work on Second Ave. that the city recently decided will not proceed this year.

PUC is in a strong cash position and can afford to add $328,000 to this year's capital budget without additional financing, the meeting was told.