LEWISTON – The cast-iron water pipes delivering rusty water to some Lewiston homes appear to be in better shape than crews first thought – meaning repairs will be quicker and less expensive.

Crews will begin cleaning and lining the small water mains below Bushey Circle, Harold Circle and Russell Street extension Monday. Work should take about three weeks to complete, according to Public Services Director David Jones.

“It’s going to end up costing us about $100,000 less than we expected,” Jones said. Crews had thought they’d have to replace entire sections of pipe. That’s a longer, much more expensive job.

“So we can do more with less money now,” said Kevin Gagne, deputy public services director.

The city began getting complaints about rust-colored water in the spring. The culprit is the network of old cast-iron pipes that delivers water to Lewiston homes. That’s happened before and it was usually easily solved by flushing the system.

Flushing the lines didn’t work in five city neighborhoods, with about 166 homes, and councilors agreed to spend $550,000 to fix the problems.

Cleaning and lining the pipes is the easiest and quickest solution. City crews will begin installing plastic water pipes on top streets on Monday. Those temporary pipes will bring water to homes while the crews work on the permanent system.

The city will dig holes in the street every few feet, running a large drill bit through the pipe to scrape off rust and built-up mineral deposits. Next, they spray the inside of the pipe with a thin concrete coating. That stops rust from forming.

Work on the first three streets should cost about $110,000. Jones said the city thought those pipes would have been too old and degraded to withstand the drill bit work. They were surprised to find the walls of the pipe had not deteriorated.

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