Deepest pipe work nearly done

WEST PITTSTON – The longest and deepest piping project the Pennsylvania American Water Co. has undertaken is nearing completion.

On Thursday, a 1,300-foot-long pipe was installed 46 feet under the Susquehanna River from West Pittston to Pittston. The $1.2-million endeavor combined a new approach to pipe-laying and a special drilling process, according to project manager Daniel C. Rickard.

He said if it’s successful it will likely be used in future projects requiring river crossings.

“It’s cheaper, more environmentally friendly and will be less averse to damage from acid mine runoff, scouring or flooding,” Rickard said as he overlooked the Susquehanna. The project started this year and was delayed by flooding in February that caused work crews along the river to halt operations and wait for the Susquehanna to recede. The pipe will be filled, tested and up and running by the middle of next week.

The new pipe will bring water from the Nesbitt Treatment Facility near Avoca through Pittston and under the river for customers in West Pittston, Exeter, Exeter Township and West Wyoming.

The work never caused customers to go without water, but motorists who wanted to use Susquehanna Avenue, York and Linden streets in West Pittston were delayed as crews from Linde Enterprises of Honesdale worked on the project. Those roads are expected to reopen today.

The new high-density polyethylene line was in three large segments – two 500-foot sections and a 300-foot section. They were fused together as the piping was pulled through a drilled-out, 45-inch hole in the bedrock under the river from the Pittston side. Gabe’s Construction Co., of Sheboygan, Wis., did the drilling.

The new line will work in conjunction with two existing lines, a 24-inch ductile-iron line and an 11-inch HDPE line, both along the river bottom in the same vicinity.

Rickard said that while the other two lines are susceptible to breaks or problems, this new line “should last forever.”

State Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Mark Carmon said the pipe’s material and its location so deep under the river bed “are definitely the preferred method.”

“This is a good thing. When a company can do it, it’s something we look at favorably,” Carmon said Thursday night.

This project has been in the works since 2002 as a way to supplement the existing lines. When the 24-inch iron pipe began leaking because of acid mine-caused corrosion last May, this project was fast-tracked, Pennsylvania American Water Co. spokeswoman Susan Turcmanovich said.

A similar, though lesser scale, project under the Susquehanna will take place in the coming months under the river from Nanticoke to Plymouth Township. Turcmanovich said that project is being finalized.

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Project under river from W. Pittston to Pittston lauded for cost and its longevity.

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