“We’re replacing the water transmission lines from the reservoir to the water treatment plant. This plant serves over 130,000 customers every day,” Troy Mayor Patrick Madden said. With Monday’s ceremonial breaking ground proceedings, crews are set to begin replacing the old transmission lines.
“You don’t want to see one of those go, because there’s really no plan B, there’s no backup plan. This is an investment into the future,” Madden says.
Phase one of the project includes installing around eight miles of piping, which are made of materials to help them last upwards of 200 years.
“So that any sort of corrosive type material can’t make its way into the pipe, which is what often makes them fail,” Greg Bold, the project manager, explains.
Bold is also a Halfmoon resident, living in one of 10 communities served by Troy’s reservoir. He’s experienced the issues of an aging system firsthand, after a massive main break (made of Riveted Steel) in Lansingburgh in 2016 spilled eight million gallons of water into parts of the city, also shutting down the water supply for surrounding communities. “It seems like in this day in age, we shouldn’t be out of water. You have so many people that, not only didn’t they have drinking water, there was no pressure there for a fire. That’s a big deal,” Bold says.
