Saturday, May 5, 2012

City needs to upgrade underground pipes

From the NY Post:

There’s a crisis beneath the streets: New York’s underground network of iron pipes has been decaying for decades. Leaky pipes and water-main breaks mean that untold thousands of gallons of water every year never reach New Yorkers’ homes, schools or businesses. This ghastly waste is reflected in soaring water bills.

The city must modernize its procurement policies. It now excludes polyvinyl-chloride pipe manufacturers from bidding on city contracts, virtually guaranteeing that corroded iron pipes will be replaced by newer, corrosion-prone pipes.

Unlike traditional iron pipes, PVC pipes don’t corrode, last longer and cost about 70 percent less. Rather than soaking ratepayers, New York should open its bidding process and let the best technology at the best price determine the outcome.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

They need to, but they won't. THe PVC Piping mentioned isn't up to "Code" And likely won't be because of the plumbers union. Ya see, anyone can do PVC piping and that scares the beejeezus out of the plumbers. So they lobby against it.

Anonymous said...

You mean we have to upgrade our infrastructure to accomidate the massive amount of people we are she horning into the city? Damn, someone shoud have said this YEARS ago. Oh, wait.....

Anonymous said...

A lot more than that. Many wires and pipes are over a century old. We need to put all phone, TV, data and electric wires underground to cut storm repair costs which drive up electric bills making us uncompetitive. Verizon's extremist unions are the biggest obstacle to NYC economic progress. We need to do to infrastructure what Bloomberg did to schools in order to have any shot at the next century.

Anonymous said...

"Rather than soaking ratepayers, New York should open its bidding process and let the best technology at the best price determine the outcome."

So we should let contract price bidding determine what is best for our long term infrastructure needs?
Has anyone here learned ANYTHING from reading this blog?

Anonymous said...

This has nothing to do with plumbers union. We are talking about water mains under the streets, not indoor lines. Polyethylene (PE) pipes are a better solution. They don't have problems with Phthalate and other plasticizers necessary to make PVC flexible. You can fit them inside existing pipes.