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Jobs faucet turns off at Water Works Park

Date Posted: December 24 2004

You work hard, you do some nice work, then you bury what you've done.

It seems a shame, but that about sums up a lot of the work performed at Detroit's Water Works Park this summer, where more than 1,000 feet of water pipe big enough to walk through was installed and put into service, 20-30 feet underground.

Dug up, replaced or abandoned were century-old wooden and brick-lined pipes that for the most part, continued to serve the system well. New and existing pipes, both active and abandoned, zig-zagged underground across the 110 acre site, making digging a bit of an adventure.

"The drawings for the existing water mains were a little unpredictable," said Jeff Short, project manager for Dan's Excavating. "The records showing where the old pipes were placed are not as good as the records we keep. It was a tough job, but that's what we do."

Dan Bernard, project manager for E.L. Pipe, said workers tore out - and saved - a number of old plumbing applications, including massive brass valves and wooden water mains that were still in service.

"I don't know what will come of it, but they talked about making a museum out of some of the stuff we took out of there," Bernard said. "At one time we had more than 100 plumbers on the job, and it was a great opportunity for journeymen and apprentices to learn how to install various systems in the plant. This was a very challenging, and successful job."

The building trades placed into the water-delivery system about 900 feet of 96-inch diameter pipe, and another 120 feet of 120-inch diameter pipe over a 90-day period. The work was done in concert with other construction activity at the Water Works Park, which is wrapping up a six-year effort to modernize the water plant, which was first built in 1879 in a park-like setting on the Detroit riverfront. The plant supplies water to about 43 percent of Michigan residents.

In 2001 and 2002 we featured work at the plant, including installation of a new pump house, filtration system and ozonation process and related piping and electrical work. Laborer Paul Malnar of Local 1191 recently sent us some photos at the plant that he took this summer, which prompted this update.

While the old pipes have served the system well, higher pressures in the system and old age prompted their replacement. Short said TV cameras that were snaked through the old brick-lined pipe that will remain in service showed them to still be in good shape.

"It's amazing to see the amount of work it took to build that pipe," Short said. "It was very labor intensive."

The new pipes, known as "lock joint," are constructed of a high-compression stainless steel cylinder encapsulated in concrete. A rubber gasket inside the fittings and a stainless steel clamp forms the seal.

The $280 million project has been managed by the Detroit Water Team, a group of five
five partners, including J.S. Alberici and Walsh Construction, Motor City Electric, and engineering firms Black and Veatch and Montgomery Watson.

Only a handful of Hardhats from the Water Team remain at the site, and they expect to be off the job early next month. Bernard said aside from some site demolition, the project is essentially complete.

However, he said if the City of Detroit sometime expands the pumping capacity of the plant from its current 240 million gallons per day to its capacity of 320 million gallons per day, maybe they'll be back….


A 120-INCH DIAMETER water main - the largest size at Detroit's Water Works Park - is lowered into place by tradesman employed by Dan's Excavating. Photo by Paul Malnar