The City of Graham has provided water service to its residents for over 100 years. As the City grew, so did the demand for water, and in the 1950’s a water treatment plant was built and supplied residents with water through a 10” watermain that spans approximately 19,000 linear feet. The 10” watermain serves the northern area of the City of Graham with much of their water. Over the previous 10 years this watermain has succumbed to several breaks, due to aging materials and pressure differences within the system. Throughout those years, AWCK has worked in lockstep with the City, analyzing rehabilitation methods, reviewing alternative routes for a future watermain and working with various funding agencies to assist the City with the cost of construction for this project. In 2021, through various meetings and discussions with state officials, the City of Graham was awarded a portion of the funding needed to complete this project. Due to the length of the project and terrain challenges, our engineering team advised the City that it would be more feasible to split this project into phases. Phase 1 of the project consists of installation of 16” and 30” watermain along US Highway 70 with various roadway, railroad and utility crossings. Phase 1 is approximately 13,000 linear feet and is currently under contact for construction. Phase 2 of the project consists of crossing the Haw River and installing an estimated 8,200 linear feet of 16” watermain to connect to the existing water system within the City of Graham. Our engineering team did plan a third phase for this project, which would complete the replacement of the 10” watermain by installing an additional 5,800 linear feet of 12” watermain. Further analysis, the water distribution system shows that Phase 3 is not at as high risk for failure do to the working pressure along this route being lower than in Phases 1 and 2, which have experienced most of the failures. A project of this size took many years of thorough planning, countless hours of coordination and dedication by both City staff and AWCK project team members.
Project Team:
Josh Johnson, P.E. – Principal In Charge
Brent Mills, P.E. – Project Engineer
Clay Phillips, P.E. - Assistant Project Engineer
Heath Williams, P.L.S. – Survey Manager
Gary Parrish, P.L.S. – Easement Mapping
Wally Fox – Civil Design Technician
Roger Baldwin – Construction Observation/Administration
Completion: 2022-2025
