Being Prepared Is a Costly Proposition

IRONWOOD, MI - Sunday, February 1, 2009 - Hopefully a part for every occasion.The City of Ironwood has approximately fifty-two miles of water main with O.D. (outside dimension) sizes ranging from  two inch or smaller to 3"; 4"; 6"; 8"; 10"; 12"; 14"; and the largest being sixteen inches.

At one time the water system serviced fifteen thousand people. Today it serves approximately six thousand. Maintaining the old parts of the system and the installation of new pipe  requires many parts and variety of specialized equipment.

The pictures above show the huge inventory the City must keep on hand to get the job done. Some of the specialized equipment include the CL-12 tapping machine which is used to tap mains into mains without shutting the water down. The city also utilizes a hydro-stop machine which can plug/stop a water main thus isolating a short span of pipe to make repairs while keeping others in service.  An Insta-Valve machine is used at times to insert a main shut off valve when it is imperative that no water is shut down.

The water crew also has electronic pipe locators to trace out the system. "Big Foot" and hydrophones are listening devices used at times to try and locate leaks by sound. When a leak cannot be found by these means the city will utilize a company that has a computerized correlater to come in and do a leak detection search. All in all there is more than meets the eye in maintaining the system.

Maintenance on a system as old as Ironwood's is also very costly -- that's why the vast majority of the City's Stimulus Package request was for repairs and improvements to the City's water and sewer lines.

At one o'clock this morning the Chronicle noticed that City crews were continuing to work on the Cloverland Drive water break. The Chronicle will continue to post updates as they become available.