Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Water Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City completes emergency valve insertions; reallocates $25,680 in water fund
Summary
Ashland's water department reported emergency valve insertions to isolate a live 12-inch main and an 8-inch main after multiple valves failed; city crews handled excavation and the council approved a budget reallocation of $25,680 to cover the work.
Jeff Eller, the city's supervisor for water emergency repairs, told the council crews responded to a contractor's call about a tie-in on Oct. 3 and later engaged MB Construction to perform live valve insertions. The crew completed a 12-inch valve insertion in about two-and-a-half hours and an 8-inch insertion in roughly three hours; city staff performed excavation to reduce mobilization costs.
Eller said the insertions allow the city to isolate sections of main it previously could not because many existing valves would not fully shut. "We shut down as many as 21 valves," he said, and crews could not get system pressure below 25 PSI before the insertions. The work will allow future isolation for repairs and tie-ins without interrupting customers.
To pay for the emergency work, Eller proposed reallocating $25,680 from capital equipment to capital expenditures; he told the council this is a reallocation that does not increase total fiscal-year spending. Council members asked about life expectancy and replacement strategy for aging valves; Eller said many of the valves date to the mid-1990s and that the department will include valve replacement planning in next year's capital improvement plan.
