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Mansfield to pilot contractor testing of 900 hydrants and add reflective flow rings
Summary
City staff told the municipal and public utilities committee it will pilot a contract with True North to flow-test about 900 of Mansfield’s roughly 2,800 hydrants in 2026, enter results into the city GIS, and add reflective rings to show hydrant flow classes; the fire department will inspect the remaining hydrants.
MANSFIELD — City staff told the municipal and public utilities committee that Mansfield will pilot a contract with True North to flow-test and flush about 900 hydrants in 2026 and add reflective flow-indicator rings to hydrants across the system.
Chief Crow, describing the fire department’s review of the program, said the city’s prior approach left gaps. "We weren't touching every hydrant every year and that was causing issues for us," Crow said, saying the department had reworked the program after comparing it with NFPA, ISO and EPA guidance.
A second presenter, identified in the meeting as Bob, said Mansfield has about 2,800 hydrants and that the EPA requires a hydrant be flushed at least every four years. "The EPA requires the city to flush a hydrant every four years," he said, and described a testing regimen that includes static, residual and flow measurements.
Under the plan, True North would flow-test roughly 900 hydrants during a 2026 pilot (staff said the work could run into late spring or summer). True North would record test results directly into the city's GIS and operations dashboards; the administration and the fire department would get daily access to testing tallies and condition data. Fire department crews would inspect the remaining hydrants and record condition data but not perform flow testing.
Staff said the program emphasizes data quality and operational clarity. Test data will feed the city GIS so engineering and water-repair staff can see which hydrants were tested, what readings were collected and whether a hydrant needs repair or replacement. "When we bring up the data in GIS that the fire department has tested a hydrant we want to make sure that that's correct," the presenter said.
The administration also described a new reflective ring system to mark hydrant flow capacity. Previously crews painted flow numbers on hydrants; staff said reflective rings with a color chart will give crews and first responders clearer, longer-lasting, real-time indicators of flow class, and will be more visible at night.
Council members asked how the contractor’s work would be coordinated with the fire department’s inspections and how the pilot’s 900 hydrants were selected. Staff said the city’s GIS dashboards will assign hydrants to True North and to the department; work orders will be completed on the dashboard and items will change color when finished so teams do not overlap.
No formal contract vote for the pilot was recorded in the committee discussion beyond staff saying that the city’s board of control had approved executing a contract and the committee was being briefed on what to expect in the field. The committee asked staff to return with operational updates as testing proceeds.
