Water Works

On Tuesday, Dec. 6 at approximately 2 a.m., a large water main break occured on Adrian Drive. Crews responded to find that an 8-inch pipe had ruptured. They worked to repair the break over night and it was back in service by morning.  

Many of the water related issues that occur throughout the community are due to the maturation of the city's infrastructure and is not a reason for alarm. The design life of a water service and most underground infrastructure is approximately 50 years. Considering that Rohnert Park is approaching its 50th anniversary, and that there are about 9,000 water service connections citywide, we should expect about 200 water service failures per year.

Water services fail for a variety of reasons including ground shifting and movement, corrosion, material defects, initial workmanship and design life. Over the years, the city has taken steps to minimize several of these contributing factors that cause water services to fail prematurely. Construction standards specify high quality materials and construction techniques that, under most circumstances, all but eliminate premature water service failure from corrosion, ground movement and workmanship.

The city performs water service replacement with staff — Public Works maintenance workers assigned to Water Distribution. Typically four full-time staff members are needed to perform a complete water service replacement. Basic steps include: 1) underground utility location, 2) customer notification and coordination, 3) excavation, 4) installation, 5) disinfection, 6) trench compaction, and 7) repaving.

In evaluating cost-saving alternatives for this ongoing need, like other neighboring cities, we concluded that performing this function with city staff is the best approach. This is one function that staff is highly efficient at performing thereby providing the best overall value to the community.