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Staff members from the Carlisle Borough's Public Works Department fix a leak in a water main along Franklin Street Wednesday morning.
Water leaks from a main on Franklin Street in Carlisle Wednesday morning. The borough's Public Works staff temporarily closed a portion of the road and dug down to the pipe to fix the leak.
Infrastructure could be considered an umbrella term, one that covers a diverse network of systems that allow a municipality and its residents to function.
In Carlisle, the borough maintains three main systems: water, sanitary sewer and stormwater.
Each of these contain above and below-ground equipment to upkeep.
Outside companies, such as PPL for eletric, UGI for gas and GloFiber for phone, internet and television networks, provide services for borough residents as well.
In this package, the Sentinel takes a look into a variety of the Carlisle Borough's various forms of infrastructure using information from borough officials to identify current and upcoming infrastructure work, the cost of such maintenance projects and the importance of properly functioning systems.
Like any other municipality, Carlisle Borough is packed with infrastructure.
Some of this, like streets, treatment plants and water tanks are above the ground. Other infrastructure, such as electricity, gas and fiber optic lines are maintained by private companies.
However dozens of miles of borough-maintained infrastructure exist beneath Carlisle’s surface in the form of water main, sanitary sewer and stormwater systems. Though buried, these can be seen through maintenance work or repairs and show up monthly with fees on residents’ utility bills.
Age, quality and repair remain ongoing issues, as well as rate hikes.
Unlike summer road construction though, infrastructure season lasts all year, meaning that work is always in full swing.
Carlisle Borough outlined the following streets that will be incorporated into the 2022 Water Main Break Replacement Plan.
As summer fades into fall, water main breaks become more common. Public Works Director Mark Malarich said these typically occur from the late fall through early spring due to shifting ground and changing temperatures.
“Our system is quite old,” he said. “It was put in, some of it, well over 100 years ago and the current standards as far as how you install pipe has changed so we have a lot of pipe that is sitting on rock or sitting immediately on top or below gas mains and things move [and] shift with changes of temperatures, so that typically occurs in the fall and that’s a reactive thing. We see water surfacing or we see a reduction in pressure or we see a very high demand and we go out and look for it.”
Malarich said most of the borough’s work on the water, sanitary sewer and stormwater systems this year has been reactive, meaning responsive to issues that pop up. These could be water main breaks, stormwater or sewer partial collapses or clogs.
Throughout the year, crews also work to monitor underground systems.
Malarich said the borough performs leak detections in water mains with special equipment that “hears” leaks.
“It’s an electronic device that we put on at valves and it can detect leaking sounds, so typically we do it several times a year,” he said. “It’s a continuous thing where we start at one end of the borough and go through the borough putting these sounding devices on valves and when we hear something, then we narrow it down until we can find the leak.”
While the amount of time it takes to sweep the borough depends on the number of leaks detected and how long it takes to narrow down the location of the leak, Malarich estimated that the process typically takes a couple of months. When finished, the cycle restarts.
The borough also monitors stormwater and sanitary sewer lines by televising several miles of each throughout the year.
“We take this camera that’s on wheels and we drop it down the manhole and we have a remote … it crawls along and you’re able to tilt the camera and there’s a light so you can look up and see, well OK, there’s a crack there and there’s water come[ing] in and that needs to be addressed,” Malarich said.
A rain garden remains under construction along North College Street in Carlisle.
While some work on the borough’s underground systems is reactive, Carlisle has either developed or is in the process of developing master plans for each of its three systems to address potential problems proactively.
Malarich said the borough prepared a study a couple of years ago that categorized its 95 miles of water pipe, determining which sections are composed of cast iron pipe (which was installed before the 1960s and tends to crack) and which sections are made of ductile iron pipe, a newer and stronger type of pipe. The study also determined the ages of the borough’s water pipes.
“The borough took the system over from Carlisle Water and Gas Co. in the early 1930s, so all we know is from 1930 on as far as age,” Malarich said. “Now we know what pipes were there before 1930, but we don’t know how old they were.”
After the study, the borough identified areas to work on due to pressures, breaks and aging pipes, and established a plan to replace one to two miles of pipe each year. With 95 miles of pipes, Malarich described this as a “continuous program.”
He said council awarded the contract for the water main master plan in July, but due to supply chain issues work isn’t expected to begin until mid-October.
“So that’s a project that’s going to really impact the borough from a standpoint of road closures and just construction activity,” Malarich said.
A map outlines the projected work areas where watermains will be replaced this year. Malarich said the work is expected to take at least a year to complete before the borough moves on to the next year’s one to two miles. Crews will close one or two streets at a time to install new water mains while the old mains remain in service.
“Obviously people can’t go without water, so they’ll be putting in a new main and new service lines from the main to the curb and then eventually connecting that pipe to the customer’s service,” Malarich said.
“We will be fleshing out the logistics and communicating with all the residents and businesses that are impacted in the area prior to construction,” Borough Manager Susan Armstrong said.
It will cost approximately $5 million for two miles of pipe, Malarich said.
Before the water system master plan, the council also approved a sanitary sewer master plan in 2014 that is in the works. The plan is similar in that it will tackle a little piece of the borough’s sanitary sewer system each year.
“That has involved the investment of several million dollars per year in [the] repair of sanitary sewer mains and the type of repair really depends on the condition of the main,” Malarich said. “So we’ve done projects where we’ve had to dig up and replace main and we’ve done projects where we’ve aligned water mains.”
Carlisle’s stormwater system is smaller than its water and sewer systems with approximately 35 to 40 miles of pipeline.
“It also is old, it was put in as the borough was developing and in the downtown area that’s quite old,” Malarich said.
The borough is working to establish a master plan for this system to outline projects.
The plan includes two components: pipe replacement and rehabilitation to allow for prolonged function and sediment, nitrogen and phosphorous reduction in stormwater. The latter comes from a permit the borough has from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection requiring it to reduce 10% of sediment, 10% of nitrogen and 5% of phosphorous in stormwater over a five year period that began around 2020, Malarich said.
To meet this goal, the borough looks to work stormwater improvements into existing projects such as the Carlisle Connectivity Project, designed to improve mobility in the northern portion of the borough, improve streets and install three roundabouts.
Crews are performing construction for the TIGER Project, the second phase, which includes the installation of a four-point roundabout at B Street and North College Street in Carlisle.
“For the TIGER Project we’ve put in rain gardens so that as water rushes off the road surface, it gets filtered through a soil medium,” Malarich said.
He expects the stormwater system’s master plan to be completed by the end of the year.
The cost to carry out master plan improvements, monitor systems and make emergency repairs comes out of the borough’s water utility, sewer utility and stormwater utility budgets, which are discreet accounts that are separate from the general fund and specifically designed to maintain and operate these systems. These come in part from residents’ utility bills.
“Recognizing all the investments that the borough is doing in infrastructure, council had a utility rate study done ... and that looked at our rates over a long time period and that provided recommendations, and we’ve been following those recommendations,” Malarich said.
Armstrong said the study was conducted in 2018.
As part of the Carlisle’s annual budget process, the borough considers utility rate recommendations from this study.
Staff members from Carlisle Borough's Public Works Department fix a leak in a water main along Franklin Street Wednesday morning.
Carlisle examines each of the three systems for its own needs.
Water-relate needs include adequate pressure and flow, ensuring capacity to meet the needs of customers and provide for fires, which require lots of water quickly, Malarich said.
The borough looks at the sewer system’s ability to transport water from a residence to the treatment facility without causing overflow. With stormwater, Carlisle concerns itself with the system’s ability to convey stormwater for a variety of storm events.
“If you follow the news ... you know that the frequency and the severity of storm events is changing drastically, quite drastically,” Malarich said. “So we’ve developed a model to look at the ability of our system to handle a certain frequency storm.”
This model helps crews to see how much a certain event would flood the area and weigh the cost to install larger facilities with the possible damage that could occur.
To Malarich, the importance of ensuring the sound operation of all systems comes down to public safety and health.
Carlisle infrastructure by the numbers:
*Information provided by the 2022 Borough of Carlisle Budget, the Carlisle Borough's Website, Public Works Director Mark Malarich and Shentel Government and Community Affairs Specialist Stuart French
“People expect that when they turn the tap on, clean water comes out and when they flush, dirty water goes away, and if we fail to maintain our system then there’s going to be stoppages in service,” he said.
Malarich also said undertaking projects in a timely manner demonstrates responsibility from a rate standpoint, saying it’s more expensive to react to a failure or collapse. Contamination, property damage and flooding can also occur through water main breaks, sanitary sewer failure or stormwater system failure.
“We have to be good stewards fiscally, of the environment and physically with our resources as public servants,” Armstrong said.
Crews work on the High Street bridge in Carlisle Thursday morning. After a number of delays, no further closures will be needed to finish the remaining small items in the replacement project.
Crews put the finishing touches on the High Street bridge replacement project Thursday in Carlisle.
Concrete beams are moved into place at the High Street bridge in Carlisle Friday morning.
Concrete beams are moved into place at the High Street bridge, Carlisle, Friday morning, July 30, 2021.
Concrete beams are moved into place at the High Street bridge, Carlisle, Friday morning, July 30, 2021.
Work on replacing the bridge on East High Street over Letort Spring Run in Carlisle will result in traffic interruptions.
Work on the bridge on East High Street over Letort Spring Run in Carlisle has resumed.
The bridge on East High Street over Letort Spring Run, Carlisle, has resumed work for construction.
The bridge on East High Street over Letort Spring Run, Carlisle, has resumed work for construction.
The bridge on East High Street over Letort Spring Run, Carlisle, has resumed work for construction.
The bridge on East High Street over Letort Spring Run, Carlisle, has resumed work for construction.
Construction on the bridge over the Letort Spring Run on East High Street in Carlisle is seen in June.
Construction on the bridge over the Letort Spring Run on East High Street in Carlisle is pictured in June 2020.
Construction on the bridge over the Letort Spring Run on East High Street in Carlisle is seen in June 2020.
Construction continues on the bridge over the Letort Spring Run on East High Street, Carlisle.
Construction continues on the bridge over the Letort Spring Run on East High Street, Carlisle.
Concrete barriers have been placed on the bridge over LeTort Spring Run on East High Street in preparation for crews to begin demolition and replacement of the bridge.
The replacement project for the bridge that carries East High Street over LeTort Spring Run started in April with water and sewer line work.
Changes to the traffic pattern on East High Street have eliminated the left turn lane for those driving east. The change has been made as crews prepare to demolish and replace the bridge over LeTort Spring Run.
Concrete barriers have been placed on the bridge over LeTort Spring Run on East High Street in preparation for crews to begin demolition and replacement of the bridge.
This photo from September 1960 shows the stone railing of what is now the Marine Lance Corporal Edward Rykoskey Memorial Bridge on East High Street in Carlisle.
This photo from 1935 shows the elevated railroad tracks over the stone arch bridge that carried East High Street over the LeTort Spring Run.
This photo from September 1960 shows East High Street looking east. The bridge is just beyond the old stone buildings.
The Bridge on East High Street, Carlisle, will soon start construction to be replaced.
Maddie Seiler is a news reporter for The Sentinel and cumberlink.com covering Carlisle and Newville. You can contact her at mseiler@cumberlink.com and follow her on Twitter at: @SeilerMadalyn
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Maddie Seiler is a news reporter for The Sentinel.
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Construction crews make progress during the first two months of work on the roundabout that will be installed at B Street and North College St…
Staff members from the Carlisle Borough's Public Works Department fix a leak in a water main along Franklin Street Wednesday morning.
Water leaks from a main on Franklin Street in Carlisle Wednesday morning. The borough's Public Works staff temporarily closed a portion of the road and dug down to the pipe to fix the leak.
Staff members from Carlisle Borough's Public Works Department fix a leak in a water main along Franklin Street Wednesday morning.
A rain garden remains under construction along North College Street in Carlisle.
Carlisle Borough outlined the following streets that will be incorporated into the 2022 Water Main Break Replacement Plan.
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