  Hardhat Member Username: Hardhat Post Number: 266 Registered: 10-2003 |
Back when the Motor City Casino was first being built at the old Wonder Bread factory site several years, workers excavated wooden water mains. They were hollowed out logs, about three-inch inside diameter, possibly tamarack, and in remarkably good condition. They were apparently no longer in service. Seeing forumer Broken Main pop up on another thread, I'd like to ask him or any of our other resident experts if they have any knowledge of wooden water mains still being in service in Detroit, or elsewhere? | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 3725 Registered: 07-2004 |
Haha. What's funny is that I can recall articles from 50 years ago about workers' surprise at excavating wooden mains. All the more astonishing if it is happening today. Proof that the quality of wood is in decline. | ||
Farrer Member Username: Farrer Post Number: 625 Registered: 12-2003 |
I know a guy who works for the state, an engineer who works water. Mackinac island's water system was redone sometime in the relatively recent past and he/they encountered those types of wooden water mains in that project. | ||
Catch22 Member Username: Catch22 Post Number: 11 Registered: 01-2008 |
During the time I-96 was being built from Grand River westward, I was a telephone installer working on the northwest side (Redford, Vermont, & Hogarth exchanges). Since this was well before the age of cell phones, every subcontractor on the project had a trailer and we had to string phone lines out into the middle of the construction zone as jobs came and went. One in particular I still remember. This subcontractor's job was to install a cement cap over a wood water main that ran alongside the east side of Greenfield, to protect it from the weight of the new freeway pavement and traffic. The guys took me over to the dig and I saw the main for myself. They said it was made of hollowed out cedar logs and it was in 10' (approx) sections. The sections appeared to be joined with some kind of tar substance. They had no idea how long it had been there but was still in service at that time (mid '70s). | ||
Raptor56 Member Username: Raptor56 Post Number: 638 Registered: 05-2007 |
Wasn't Detroit Water conducting a rather larger project recently within the past couple years, to remove wood water mains in the downtown area and replace them with your typical cement mains? I could have swore I read something about this in the paper at the time. | ||
Old_guy Member Username: Old_guy Post Number: 174 Registered: 04-2008 |
http://www.sewerhistory.org/gr fx/components/pipe-wood1.htm | ||
Denbytar64 Member Username: Denbytar64 Post Number: 56 Registered: 03-2008 |
I worked in the Former Soviet Union and saw wooden water mains still being used today. They were in the villages with populations of under 5000. I am sure there were some under the ground in Moscow. Das Vodonya. | ||
Mackenzie68 Member Username: Mackenzie68 Post Number: 47 Registered: 03-2008 |
When I left Stockton CA in 2005, there were many redwood mains and sewer pipes still in use. I wandered down to my corner one day while the guys were digging for another purpose and got to see one in action. The neighborhood was built up starting about 1906 and largely completed by 1929. I lived about ten blocks from the original Tuxedo Junction of musical fame. | ||
Goat Member Username: Goat Post Number: 10537 Registered: 10-2003 |
We still have some in Windsor as well. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 2105 Registered: 12-2005 |
From page 5 of the Detroit Water and Sewage Department - the First 300 Years: Early Water Mains | ||
Jiminnm Member Username: Jiminnm Post Number: 1878 Registered: 02-2005 |
Wood was also used for early gas mains in Detroit (most pre-1900), but those are long gone. | ||
Detroitnerd Member Username: Detroitnerd Post Number: 3748 Registered: 07-2004 |
If you look closely at some of the older streetlamps, the poles are made of wood. (And, if those remain, the nearby curb is usually of sandstone.) |
