CITY’S WATER SUPPLY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 214, 10 August 1937, Page 6

CITY’S WATER SUPPLY

INCREASES IN PRESSURE. EFFECT OF NEW PIPE-LINE. Generous increases in the pressure of the city’s water supply have been brought about with the laying of the two and a-half miles of new 21-inch main from College Street toward Tiritea; a “Standard” reporter was informed to-day that the pressure in the Square has risen by as much as 43 per cent, on a recent comparison. About noon the pressure is now in the vicinity of 801 b to the square inch, and the night pressure is just over 1201 b. In 1921, 18-inch mains were laid in Fitzherbert Avenue and, taking the percentage increase as from a date prior to that undertaking, the increase in the pressure is no less than 110 per cent. With the higher pressure any weak spots in city mains have been found, the first being in Fitzherbert Avenue a, few days ago, and at 2.20 a.m. today a supply main to the diickpond in the Square found the strain too great. The water, welling up under the asphalt sheet on the road surface, •blew it up like an air cushion until the pressure was relieved. This morning City Council workmen were engaged in cutting a section out of the pipe, which is of a considerable age, and fitting in a new length.