Lincoln School upgrades water main

Lincoln Public School is upgrading their main water line this summer, swapping out the old PVC water line pipe for newer, more durable HDPE pipe.

School custodian Derek Perez said it's mainly a preventative maintenance measure. The school has been evaluating the options for improving the school's water system since February, after a fitting at the water pump broke in January and flooded the all-purpose building by the football field and caused roughly $50,000 in damage and restoration costs.

The school board had been considering the possibility of moving the school's water pump out of the building and into a separate, purpose-built pump house, but Perez researched the costs associated with the project and said it would have been very expensive. At the February school board meeting the cost, based on preliminary bids, was estimated to be about $40,000.

Instead they made the choice to re-do the main waterline and install a new, soft start pump with a three-phase motor that ramps up the water pressure gradually.

"The old one was just on or off," Perez said. "When it kicked on, all that pressure was hitting all at once."

That sudden blast of water pressure hammered on the system's pipes, particularly on the 90-degree fitting that broke and caused the flooding in January.