City water lines

[Dob Hooligan]

Since I am a North Side Snob, and only feel safe driving there, I can't help but notice there are some roads where the water mains break on a regular basis. Like N May Avenue between 36th and 39th, which much have a leak 3 times a year. Or N Villa between 23rd and 10th. Some of these lines break less than 100 feet apart.

So, my question is- how much would it cost to just replace the line for some of those chronic failure areas? As much as we spend on patches, and how challenging some of the road resurfacing can be, I have to wonder when it becomes a better use of resources to replace a section of line?

[fortpatches]

Not sure on the cost, but I wonder if the lines are just too near the surface and that is what is causing them to burst so much?

[April in the Plaza]

Deferred maintenance of critical municipal infrastructure is one of the unintended consequences of MAPS. As things currently stand, the city allocates roughly $12M/year for water main repair and replacement, which is a woefully inadequate number for a fast growing city of 700,000+ people.

[Urbanized]

Deferred maintenance of critical municipal infrastructure is one of the unintended consequences of MAPS. As things currently stand, the city allocates roughly $12M/year for water main repair and replacement, which is a woefully inadequate number for a fast growing city of 700,000+ people.

That's a wild assertion. Please explain.

I would have nodded my head while reading if you had said it was an unintended consequence of any or all of the following:

• Poor land use/planning/zoning
• Sprawl (see above)
• State constitutional restrictions on municipalities benefitting from property taxes

Not sure how the MAPS tax or the resulting projects have impacted other infrastructure negatively in any way; in fact the increases in population and sales tax collection that have been systematically driven by OKC's MAPS-fueled economic resurgence have very specifically increased the pool of funds available to repair our ailing infrastructure, which is generally bond funded anyway, NOT directly funded via dedicated sales tax (a la MAPS).

I'm open to hear your reasoning here, but it honestly seems like you simply have an anti-MAPS axe to grind.

[TheTravellers]

Not sure on the cost, but I wonder if the lines are just too near the surface and that is what is causing them to burst so much?

Most of the cause is probably age. All those areas are in older parts of town. Have to add that NW 36th between Venice and Classen is notorious for being torn up at some point almost quarterly for the past few years. And yes, Dob, me and my wife agree and have said multiple times over the past few years that they should just suck it up and replace entire sections of line that repeatedly fail rather than patch, patch the patch, re-patch it, then re-patch the re-patch...

[progressiveboy]

Agree. Regarding age is a huge factor in crumbling infrastructure and water lines. OKC will eventually have to bit the bullet and spend millions to replace these aging lines. They have deferred long enough! Many of these older neighborhoods are starting to show wide spread crumbling infrastructures including the aging water lines. Driving around the city, the sloppy patching up of streets and frequent water line failures is starting to take a toll. Parts of OKC is starting to show it's age! It must be addressed.

[April in the Plaza]

Agree. Regarding age is a huge factor in crumbling infrastructure and water lines. OKC will eventually have to bit the bullet and spend millions to replace these aging lines. They have deferred long enough! Many of these older neighborhoods are starting to show wide spread crumbling infrastructures including the aging water lines. Driving around the city, the sloppy patching up of streets and frequent water line failures is starting to take a toll. Parts of OKC is starting to show it's age! It must be addressed.

You’d need a new sales tax to pay for it. The city is not willing to spend more than $12 million per year on this issue, which means the lines will remain in a constant state of disrepair.

[progressiveboy]

You’d need a new sales tax to pay for it. The city is not willing to spend more than $12 million per year on this issue, which means the lines will remain in a constant state of disrepair.

Then it sounds like OKC will continue with this insanity of not keeping up with it's infrastructure and the problem will continue to exasperate itself. Talk about a definition of Einstein's quote regarding insanity. Lol. This is not a perception of a 21st century modern city. Maybe the city needs to find new ways and tax bases to keep up! Just saying.

[bison34]

You’d need a new sales tax to pay for it. The city is not willing to spend more than $12 million per year on this issue, which means the lines will remain in a constant state of disrepair.

Why aren't they? Just because they haven't doesn't mean they won't. Go to the city council meetings and.bring it up. Complain on here, sure. But do something about it.

[bison34]

Then it sounds like OKC will continue with this insanity of not keeping up with it's infrastructure and the problem will continue to exasperate itself. Talk about a definition of Einstein's quote regarding insanity. Lol. This is not a perception of a 21st century modern city. Maybe the city needs to find new ways and tax bases to keep up! Just saying.

So you are taking that poster's comment as gospel because it fits your narrative of what you think OKC is, even though it isn't really based on anything other than their imagination? Got it.

[progressiveboy]

So you are taking that poster's comment as gospel because it fits your narrative of what you think OKC is, even though it isn't really based on anything other than their imagination? Got it.

All one has to do is look around at the sad disrepair of OKC streets and infrastructure. Perception and reality play into this scenario. Nothing to do with imagination, haha!

[April in the Plaza]

Why aren't they? Just because they haven't doesn't mean they won't. Go to the city council meetings and.bring it up. Complain on here, sure. But do something about it.

Perhaps you didn’t read my post? The City is not willing to spend anything in excess of $12 million per year. A City employee provided that number (in response to a recent inquiry), and the city council has no intention of increasing it.

[bison34]

Perhaps you didn’t read my post? The City is not willing to spend anything in excess of $12 million per year. A City employee provided that number, and the city council has no intention of increasing it.

If pressed, they wouldn't. It probably is never discussed at city council meetings, so no one even realizes it might be an issue. Go tell your city council member or go to a meeting. They are open to the public. I've gone before. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

[TheTravellers]

If pressed, they wouldn't. It probably is never discussed at city council meetings, so no one even realizes it might be an issue. Go tell your city council member or go to a meeting. They are open to the public. I've gone before. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Or just send an email to ward6@okc.gov (if you, "April in the Plaza", really live in The Plaza District, or substitute whatever number ward you live in).

[fortpatches]

All one has to do is look around at the sad disrepair of OKC streets and infrastructure. Perception and reality play into this scenario. Nothing to do with imagination, haha!

An estimated 28% of residents are satisfied with the condition of major city streets according to the City of OKC. About 53% of potholes are repaired within 5 days of the work order.

Only about 57% of inoperable public fire hydrants were repaired within 7 days (184 reported of 308k).
78% of work orders are planned and scheduled maintenance/repair (6,962) vs unplanned repair work orders completed.
97% of water emergencies (main / service line breaks) are responded to within 1 hour. (4,397 emergencies)
78% of water leaks are repaired within 7 days (2,442 leaks)

In 2023, they treated 42.97Bln gallons of water.

FY22 Actual Water Line Maintenance: $20.2mil, FY23 Adopted: $10.3mil, FY24 Adopted: $10.6mil

(Selected) Water Capital Program projects include:
* 60-in water line replacement from SE 74th to SE 44th for FY24 estimated cost $35mil.
* City of the Village Main replacement for $1.3mil.
* Citywide Water Main renewal and replacement for $5.8mil.
* Replacement of water meters and meter pits $3.8mil.
* Draper Condition assessment of 72" transmission main $531k
* Draper water treatment plant renewal and replacement $14.8 mil.
* Draper-Hefner interconnection transmission and booster station improvements $1mil.
* Hefner Water Treatment Plant renewal and replacement $18mil.
* North and NW extension of large transmission main from Hefner WTP $1mil.
* Construction of a second raw water pipeline from Lake Atoka to Lake Stanley Draper $149mil.