Wrangell is facing a network of aging underground utilities. Some pipes are up to 70 years old, said Tom Wetor, public works director.
Since the first of the year, at least five water and sewer line leaks have sprung up around town.
Wetor explained that a lot of the underground utility work was done in the 1980s and is beginning to age out.
He explained that the environment in Wrangell is particularly harsh and causes pipes to degrade faster than they should. A lot of the pipes in town are made of ductile iron, which he said were estimated to last 50 to 60 years when they were installed. But he said many of those pipes are aging out at 30 to 40 years.
The goal, Wetor said, is to replace all the underground pipes with high-density polyethylene plastic pipes, which are supposed to last forever. But he added that it will take a long time before all the underground infrastructure is upgraded.
Replacing the pipes is a high priority need, Wetor said, but lining up funding is extremely challenging.
Much of the funding for road projects comes from the federal Secure Rural Schools account, of which the borough planned to spend half a million dollars on McKinnon Street this year. The federal money, which is limited and uncertain each federal budget year, goes to fund the school district and road work.
Wetor said the borough goes after grants for roads all the time, but a lot of the grants for roads don’t cover water service, and grants for water often don’t cover roads, he explained. It doesn’t make sense to pave new roads over old infrastructure, he added, requiring that the borough line up sufficient funding for everything before starting anything.
He said the borough faces two costly options for repairing and rebuilding roadways and what is underground: Spend a million dollars on new equipment and add another person or two to the Public Works budget, or hire contractors for the work. Though he noted that the limited number of contractors in town are busy and not always available to take on new work.
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