CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou Utilities District workers spent the day July 26 salvaging pipe fittings on Main Street that district director Hugh Kirkpatrick said are redundant.
“They became obsolete due to our project last summer when we installed a new 12-inch main from Water Street all the way up to the North Main Street low service tower,” Kirkpatrick said.
The 12-inch fittings being removed were installed in 2012, and used to tie High Street to an 8-inch pipe on North Main. Now that North Main is equipped with a 12-inch main pipe, the department has salvaged the 5-year-old pipes for later use.
Kirkpatrick said water distribution pipes can often last up to 100 years, so the salvaged pipes still have “95 percent of their useful life.”
“On a rainy day, we’ll take the salvaged pipes into the shop, disassemble them, and put them back into our inventory,” Kirkpatrick said.
Moving forward, the utilities district is planning on selecting a local contractor to pave over the area.
“Hopefully it will look like we were never there,” Kirkpatrick said.
