Replacing the nearly century-old water lines to Lookout Mountain this spring proved to be a steep challenge for Chattanooga’s largest water utility.
Contractors for Tennessee American Water used mules to haul equipment through the Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park. They brought in a 240-ton truck crane to lift pipes and strung zip lines for workers laying the water mains up the 1,500-foot ascent along the Incline Railway.
“This was not your garden-variety pipeline construction project,” Tennessee American Water General Manager John Watson said.
The $1.6 million project showcased new technologies and many of the manual techniques used to install the original pipes up Lookout and other area mountains.
The work was only a small portion of more than $100 million in water system upgrades under way across Tennessee this year for new filter plants, water lines and treatment equipment among nearly 200 water utilities that serve Tennessee. But it’s still just a drop in the bucket compared with the investment needed to meet projected population growth and stricter federal water regulations, according to an analysis of America’s infrastructure needs by the American Society of Civil Engineers.