Water Mains Are Bursting All Over New York. Can They Be Fixed?

The city revenue intake is at record highs the operating budget is too big and the capital budget too small fix the ratio. Too large of a employee expansion in this Administration and some questionable programs.

I lived in the City in the late 1940s and 1950s and later in the 1960s went to college at FIT in Manhattan while living in Queens. I don't recall a day when some street, somewhere at any time was being dug up! Pipes, gas lines, and whatever other infrastructure lies under the surface is forever aging and being replaced. This is not new and not unexpected. I often wonder though, what is the master plan, a long term 15-20 year major project, to replace the most fragile and/or vulnerable systems. Since there are multiple system that must be considered, gas, electric, sewage, water and subways and other tunnels, there must finally be a coordinated plan that enables new or reconstruction without having to come back and dig up the streets and sidewalks many times. I hope that plan does exist. If, not we better get started on it soon. One water main every day is really too much to allow to continue. And one other reality; This will certainly take more than one decade. However, acknowledging that reality, then maybe that should be the goal. There should be a sense of urgency.

Can the water mains be fixed? Well, if the uber-rich, windfall-deal recipient "developers" (Hudson Yards, etc), and apparent tax-dodging corporations hanging out in NYC were fairly taxed... And if the State and the Feds contributed in they way they're supposed to in an equitable Federal system. Then, maybe... Same question -- and answer -- for the subways. Also general infrastructure: streets, bridges, tunnels, etc... Politicians here favor glitzy NEW buildings and statuary follies, preferably with someone's name tagged-on to it -- not fixing up things nobody sees... until they break. And then it's finger-pointing time...

We fed trillions of dollars to the financial industry in 2008 - propping up failed firms and in the case of AIG paying off hundreds of billions in credit default swaps that never should have been allowed. Meanwhile huge corporations pay nothing in taxes. Our whole infrastructure - roads, bridges, subways and utilities - all need major work yet we spend more trillions on endless war. Our priorities make no sense.

You forgot the sewer lines that are collapsing almost every day. Do you notice the bumpity bump when traveling by car on city streets. Almost every bump is due to collapsed sewers specially near the manholes. The average age of water mains may be 60 years, but most of the water mains and sewers in NYC were installed more than a 100 years ago. Their plans were prepared under WPA projects. The blame for bad condition of America’s infrastructure is squarely at the door steps of Politicians at all levels (from Federal Government down to Local Politicians). No one wants to invest in infrastructure, because if it is buried &/or not seen, voters don’t see it and they will not appreciate its value. Politicians are eager to budget for new infrastructure because capital budget can be funded by bonds, feds, special taxes, tolls, etc. But the maintenance has to be funded from regular budget. No gimmicks of funding can be done. Feds don’t appropriate infrastructure maintenance. Replace an old bridge you will pools willing to fund. Ask for money for bridge repairs (non- capital expenses, you will be talking to a shut your mouth politician,who will not budge from NO.

400m? It's all relative. Please compare the cost per mile of replaced pipe in NYC with the cost of say, Zurich (in most reports the most expensive city in the world with an unofficial minimum wage of around 30 dollars). And if possible, please also compare the quality and durability of work executed in NYC vs other places. We may find out that we are getting ripped off even worse than whit our subway tunnel construction...

The way this article is written with “average age of 66 years” and “Eisenhower era” makes these pipes sound old, but well-built pipes, laying in the ground, with no moving parts, and good maintenance can last hundreds of years. Some Roman waterworks are still working since the time of Jesus Christ. A systematic approach to maintenance, plus replace 50 miles of the 7,000 mile system would mean it gets totally replaced every 140 years, which is plenty. Shoddy workmanship, however, can be extraordinarily expensive.

While it would be nice to blame this on Republicans and Trump in particular, these infrastructure issues are based on local politics, taxes and fee structures. i.e. your water and sewer bill.. States and cities in general are not funding infrastructure projects the way they use to because their budgets have been overwhelmed by pension and social service costs.

There’s a quote from the movie Blade Runner, noting that every civilization was built on the backs of cheap labor. Tearing up and repairing and replacing old Infrastructure in somewhere like Manhattan is son expensive that it would probably be cheaper to bulldoze everything and start over.

Well of course, it's now an old city. That's why we pay taxes. some of us).

The water pipes will fix themselves if we give more tax cuts to the wealthy.

Oh yeah, infrastructure. I remember hearing something said about it at our last election.

Hey, the important thing is more luxury housing. Never mind the infrastructure - that is for the unwashed.

This is a subject that deserves a lot more attention, just how sustainable is the infrastructure of many of the worlds largest cities. And yet here we are, in good economic times, with low interest rates, cutting taxes instead of investing in the infrastructure required for the future of these important cities. How do the wealthy corporations, that decline to pay taxes, expect to continue to exist in a city that falls apart? The elites are failing us all, but mostly themselves and their children. What matters is more than the next quarters earning statement.

How about if you let New Yorkers volunteer. We could be trained to hear that leaky pipe and call it in. None of us want to have another one break anytime soon.

Step back and take a look at a bigger picture ... NYC and many other world-cities near sea level, will be inundated by runaway climate disruption caused sea level rise. Is it worth investing in a doomed city? If so, why hasn’t investment in basic infrastructure kept up with the fortune of such an awesome city?

Recently Robert C. Caro noted in the comments section concerning swimming pools in townhouse basements. His contention that there is just so much an island can take when it comes to drilling should be heeded, especially with the current trend of rising tides and water table. This island is a calico of swamp, landfill, rivulets of brooks and streams covered up but still flowing underneath our sidewalks and basements, as well as granite and fields. Water isn't encroaching from out there in the Atlantic, water is coming up under our feet, pushing up pestilence of mold and mildew and vermin. I'm not saying alligators lurk below, but if they did they might fend off what is encroaching.

Having had the water main in front of my house erupt this morning, I can sympathize with the story. The problem is not limited to NYC but is a nationwide problem which is ignored by our elected officials. Too busy playing politics instead of being responsible.