Project Profile: Brighton Core Waterline Replacement
Brighton, Colorado
Brown is a common earth tone, but it’s not a good color for water.
Just ask the residents of the original Brighton neighborhood between Jessup Street and Bromley Lane – including First, Second and Fulton avenues, Cherry Lane and Sanders Place. Their neighborhood has long been known for its poor water quality.
But with the Brighton Core Waterline Replacement project, which CGRS is wrapping up this month, that is already changing for those water customers.
The five-month project, which CGRS began in mid-May, consisted of:
- Replacing the old 4” and 6” cast-iron waterline with new 8” polyvinyl chloride (PVC) waterline totaling 6,000 linear feet
- Providing 130 water-service taps
- Patching about 4,000 square yards of asphalt trench
- Installing 10 fire hydrants
CGRS split up the project into four phases, installing approximately 1,500 linear feet of pipe next to the old line, and then pressure testing and disinfecting the new line before transferring the water services to the new lines.
The City of Brighton did not have updated drawings or records of the old neighborhood waterlines, so part of our contract was to provide new drawings based on current standards and requirements.
Some of the old water services were difficult to locate and occasionally we stumbled upon the old, brittle, cast iron pipes or got too close. “We didn’t really know where they were,” said John Turner, CGRS project manager. “The water crew had a selection of repair clamps for emergency repairs. We used four of them. The first one took us 2.5 hours to repair. By the time the last one happened, we had it fixed in about an hour. We got really good at it.”
Connecting each customer’s service tap to the new waterline took about 30 minutes, during which the individual customer had no water; CGRS was able to complete about five of those a day. Customers also experienced a loss of service for the greater part of the day when CGRS staff made major tie-ins to the waterline. This occurred about 12 times during the duration of the project, and CGRS informed customers 24 hours in advance of their extended water shutdown.
CGRS is set to wrap its work up Oct. 19, but most if not all of the residents in the neighborhood are already experiencing an improvement in their water’s taste, color and quantity. Some will continue to experience discoloration of their water as it is still pushed through their homes’ old pipes, but eventually the clean water will flush it out.
“Waterline pressure remained the same but volume increased,” Turner said. “Several residents commented on the improvement.”
This is the third water-related project CGRS has done for the City of Brighton since late 2017. CGRS replaced the influent and effluent valves in late 2017/early 2018 and then completed a design/build project to insert a check valve for the City’s 8.3 million-gallon water tank this spring.
