‘Team effort’ credited for water main project success

“A total team effort” is what Alan Mahan credits for the success of the city’s water main replacement project that spans 25 years.

Mahan is the Enterprise Water Works Board Field Superintendent. At the last Water Works Board meeting of 2020, held Dec. 9, he displayed two maps of the water main system in city limits. The first map was covered with red lines indicating the number of galvanized and iron water lines that needed replacing when the project began almost one quarter of a century ago. The second map had significantly fewer red lines.

“We’ve been replacing city water mains for about 25 years,” Mahan told those attending the board meeting. “Most the mains have been the original galvanized pipe and some have been the iron pipe that replaced the galvanized pipe.

“The Enterprise Water Board has replaced about 50 miles—or 261,500 linear feet—of old water main and services,” he said following the meeting. “This is an average of two miles annually.

“The lines replaced consist of iron pipe and galvanized pipe ranging from 3/4 of an inch to 6 inches in size. The age of some of the pipes dated back to the 1920’s in the downtown alleyways,” Mahan said. “This was a huge challenge. We didn’t want to interrupt the businesses downtown so we had to come up with a plan.

“We installed temporary plastic water tubing on top of the ground to all the businesses. Then we abandoned the aging water main because we thought disturbing the ground would create leaks on the 100-year-old pipe, as well as limit room for the new water main to be installed,” he explained.

Mahan said that the cooperation of the downtown businesses was key during the project. “They all worked with us and we were very appreciative of them,” he said.

The remaining water pipe replacement project included subdivisions built in the 1940s and 1950s. “Not only did the size of the water mains increase but fire hydrants were added in some areas where hydrants were spaced a little further apart,” Mahan said. “I look forward to continuing to replace the old infrastructure as funds become available.”

Mahan said the support of the respective mayors and water boards over the year has been key. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and I can tell you that it’s been a total effort by a lot of people and it has really paid off.”

Enterprise Mayor William “Bill” Cooper, who serves also as the water board superintendent, agreed with Mahan. “In the past when the city had paving projects going on we worked hand-in-hand with the city council to coordinate the projects with the water main replacement,” Cooper said. “It’s amazing to know the tremendous amount of work we’ve been doing, not only repaving but resurfacing.”

The next meeting of the Enterprise Water Board is Thursday, Jan.14, 2021. The meeting location is not yet set. The meeting is open to the public.