The Cookeville Boat Dock Road Utility planning to replace almost 17,000 feet of water lines that date back almost a half-century.
Board President Grover Bennett Jr. said the district has advertised for bids on two projects. Bids close later this week. Bennett said the three inch pipes will be replaced by six inch pipes.
“It means they will have less water pressure drop,” Bennett said. “That’s the biggest benefit to all the residents there, that they’ll just have, you know, a very good, steady supply of good pressure water.”
Bennett said more than 10,000 feet of lines will be replaced on Moss Road and almost 6,800 on Joe Rawlings Road. Bennett said in addition to helping with water pressure new larger pipes will decrease the number of leaks.
Bennett said the pipes have become brittle with age causing cracking.
“And then we start having leaks in the ground, and we still have to purchase that water from the city of Cookeville, Bennett said. “Therefore, all the customers have to pay for that water loss. So we want to minimize how much water loss we have to the district.”
Bennett said the cost to pay for the new pipes comes from money the district has saved over the years by solving leak problems. Bennett said in 2016 the district identified malfunctioning water meters cost the district $30 to $35,000 per month. Since then, Bennett said all of them have been replaced.
“When we took over the utility district nine years ago, we had approximately $300,000 in the bank,” Bennett said. “Today, we have $3 million in the bank. And our water loss has gone from 14-million per month down to less than a million per month on average. And most of that three million is because of saving all that water loss.”
Bennett said the two projects are expected to cost about $800,000.
