New Orleanians are feeling frustration, exhaustion, and just plain confusion when it comes to why water mains across the city seem to be rupturing back to back. Boil water advisories are costly and inconvenient for residents and the damage to city streets can take quite a bit of money and time to repair.
According to Norma Jean Mattei, Professor of Engineering at UNO and past President of the American Society for Civil Engineers, the string of pipe failures ultimately comes down to age. “The cast iron pipes under the streets of New Orleans typically last 80-100 years. So, it’s an excellent material but it's brittle and it corrodes and it has a life. When you put all the same type of material in a city, as it ages, the water pipes are hitting the end of their life all at the same time,” Mattei explains.
Moving forward, Mattei and many others are aiming for the city to use the type of high density plastic piping (known as HDPE piping) that has been widely implemented in other cities. “You don’t see cast iron being used anymore. HDPE pipes do have a finite life, but it’s in line with the life that cast iron has … which is a long life: 50-100 years,” noted the UNO Professor.
Along with having a similar lifespan as the old metal pipes running throughout the Crescent City, HDPE pipes can also be integrated with the existing system to make repairs rather than needing an entire teardown and replacement. “You can run these things through the existing cast iron pipe even if the pipe isn’t in the greatest shape. You can flange these and connect them to another pipe material to modify them,” added Mattei. Other old cities like Philadelphia have faced the same infrastructure issues as New Orleans and moved on to HDPE pipes … maybe New Orleans will join the parade.