The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority is primed to accelerate its replacement of lead service connections when the work resumes in March.
After approving $35.9 million in work contracts Friday, the city’s biggest water utility plans to replace up to 3,400 — and at least 2,800 — lead service lines in 2019, authority officials said. That’s up from about 2,200 in 2018, according to PWSA.
Both state money and contractor experience are bolstering the state-required replacement program, which removes potentially hazardous lead pipes that carry tap water from underground mains into individual homes, PWSA Executive Director Robert Weimar said.
Contractors crafted their 2019 bids likely “based on their experience last year,” and that appears to have driven down costs, he said.
“Of course, in a competitive bid environment, they’re going to sharpen their pencils — and they did,” Mr. Weimar said, adding that bids for this year registered well under initial projections.
A few months ago, PWSA projected the 2019 program at 2,800 replacements. Whether workers can finish 3,400 replacements by December will hinge on variables including the weather, Mr. Weimar said.
Contracts approved Friday include Independent Enterprises Inc. in Oakdale, W.A. Petrakis Contracting in Penn Hills, Frank J. Zottola Construction in Butler and AECOM, a multinational firm headquartered in Los Angeles. About $49.1 million in grant and loan money from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority is supporting the 2019 work, plus 1,000 or so additional replacements tentatively projected by mid-2020.
The money should be enough to cover nearly the entire expense, Mr. Weimar said.
“This is the kind of partnership that Harrisburg can do when they want to [do it], that can help us literally fix the infrastructure underground,” PWSA board member Deborah Gross said.
Replacements in 2019 will be concentrated in neighborhoods where lower-income households tend to be clustered, including Homewood, Morningside, Mount Washington, South Side, Greenfield and parts of Perry North and Perry South. PWSA is targeting areas with a lot of kids under the age of 6, areas where blood lead levels are elevated and those where records show a high concentration of lead lines.
The authority sent notifications to property owners to be affected by the 2019 replacements, spokesman Will Pickering said. It also is going to extend a to-do list of specific properties now that contractors’ bids came in low, he said.
PWSA has removed more than 2,760 lead service lines over the past few years amid water test results showing elevated lead levels at some homes. The utility must replace at least 7 percent of its lead service lines each year until 90 percent of tested homes consistently show the metal at 15 parts per billion or less.
Test results for December went over the threshold, although results for June slipped beneath it. The checks apply only to participating homes with lead service lines, Mr. Pickering said.
PWSA estimated about 12,500 of 81,000 residential service connections were made with lead. It intends to replace the remaining 10,000-or-so residential lead lines by 2026. Exposure to lead, a neurotoxin, is linked to developmental problems in children and other ailments.
More immediately, the authority should introduce by late March an orthophosphate additive to PWSA tap water, Mr. Weimar said. The treatment, used by a host of other water systems, prevents lead from leaching into the water from lead lines and indoor plumbing.
PWSA hoped to begin the approach sooner but has been delayed by regulatory and approval processes. Orthophosphate is expected to be more effective than a soda-ash-and-lime treatment process instituted earlier to prevent pipe corrosion.
“I think you’ll find that … as time progresses, we’re putting in place improvements in the organization that will stand the test of time,” Mr. Weimar said.
Adam Smeltz: 412-263-2625, asmeltz@post-gazette.com, @asmeltz.
First Published: January 28, 2019, 11:00 a.m.
