140-Year-Old Manhattan Water Main Rehabilitated Through Trenchless Methods

By McElroy Manufacturing, Inc.

In "the city that never sleeps," it seems only right that any construction job match the moniker of Manhattan. For the past two years, workers from contractor Halycon Construction and subcontractor Insituform Technologies Inc. have convened on different blocks of iconic Madison Avenue, to rehabilitate a 140-year-old 48-inch water main running under the street. To alleviate the headaches that could happen by snarling New York City's rush-hour traffic, workers quickly moved onto sections of the avenue each Friday night and worked until Monday morning. Just in the time of a weekend, the workers can fix between 500 and 1,000 feet of the existing main.

To understand how old the problematic 48-inch water main is, envision the Brooklyn Bridge under construction, Jesse James robbing a bank or Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant as President of the United States. All were occurring at the same time New York City put in the water line.