Pipe projets completed in Kremmling

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Crews unearth the leaky pipe on County Road 12. The project follows the completion of a larger project near the River Ranch Mobile Home Park.

Kremmling’s Public Works Director, Jason Bock and his staff have had a busy spring.

The reservoir began spilling on Mother’s Day and has continued to spill for the last five weeks. According to Bock when the reservoir overflows, “The abundance of water makes it harder to treat. The plant just takes more attention when it is spilling. You have to babysit it more.”

The last time the Town’s reservoir spilled for this amount of time was in 2011 when the Kremmling area experienced flooding.
At that time, former Public Works Director Doug Moses and his crew had to live on site in a camper for full-time coverage.
Since that time, large rocks were placed below the spillway to help stabilize the banks and prevent erosion that plagued the crews in 2011.

Bock can also monitor the plant remotely on his computer which helped him immediately identify a break in the line on June 8. Incidentally, the break in the line was not related to the abundance of water.

Old iron pipes had been replaced nearly 10 years ago with plastic resistant to corrosion, however a 800 feet section underneath County Road 12 still contained the steel pipe. “Corrosive soil had eaten a hole in the ductal iron pipe about the size of a golf ball,” said Bock.

Early in the morning around 4 a.m., Bock was alerted to a low tank alarm. “The alarm was set to 25 feet. I was able to check the plant on the computer and see it was still operating.” He immediately began troubleshooting elsewhere and found the large break in the water main on his way to the water plant.

“The water plant remained running while the leak was being repaired to maintain positive pressure so no contamination could get into the line,” said Bock emphasizing the safety of the Town’s water, adding that the Town’s water supply was never affected and service was never interrupted.

Fortuitously, the Town was already working with Maximum Services on another project and the contractors were on hand to aide Public Service, dig up the water main, and put on a temporary clamp. The contractors are now working with the public service crew, Bock, Dillon Willson and Curtis Docheff to replace the iron pipe with a plastic one and the work is expected to be completed next week.

The new line will be placed parallel to the old line, be disinfected, and then tied into the main line. Again, no service will be interrupted.

Earlier in the month, Maximum Services worked with the Town to replace approximately 1300 feet of an eight- inch water main feeding River Ranch Mobile Home Park, the fairgrounds, the Pellet Plant, and the Boat Storage and Fed/Ex property.

The new pipe replaced a four-inch steel pipe that was leaking.
“We are going to save a lot of water abandoning that old line,” Bock said.

The County owns the airport property and the fairgrounds. The pipe crosses these properties and the Town required a legal easement to dig up the ground which was 8-feet below the surface.

“In turn, the County received new service lines for the fairgrounds and the Extension Hall,” elaborated Bock.

The pipe crossed under the asphalt on County Road 364 and also near the Extension Hall. “We were lucky we only had to dig-up small sections of the pavement.”

The project had been on the horizon for over four years and was budgeted this year for $159,000.

The owners of the River Ranch Mobile Home Park took advantage of the line replacement to upgrade their own services and extended the eight-inch main to their property if there were ever future development. Right now the trailers are served by a two-inch tap.

River Ranch Mobile Home Park manager Tracy Lemon commented, “We greatly appreciate being given the opportunity to upgrade while the digging was underway. This allowed us to chime in on the action at a much lower expense then if only we were interested in an upgrade. Maximum services did an excellent job and restored our water service as quickly as possible.”

River Ranch Mobile Home Park was never formally annexed into the Town and pays higher water rates.