AUSTIN -- A couple of lane closures will slow traffic in downtown Austin the next few days while crews replace some old wastewater pipes.
Right now the two center lanes on Sixth Street and two left lanes on Seventh Street are closed between Congress Avenue and and Brazos Street. They'll be shut down until 6 a.m. Thursday.
More closures are planned next week as the city works to replace aging infrastructure.
"Routine inspection showed us there were two wastewater lines in downtown Austin that needed repair," said Austin Water Utility spokesperson Jill Mayfield.
While many of Austin's water and wastewater pipes are from the 1950s and 60s, there are also pipes installed as far back as the 20s.
On Monday, city crews responded to at least two broken pipe calls.
As the city continues to grow, the utility says it's doing all it can to keep up with the wear and tear of the city's wastewater system.
Mayfield says every day they're monitoring pipes across the city by sending in tiny cameras to flush out problems and see which lines are most in need of repair.
" We are always looking at those lines all over the city all the time," she said.
There are 2,700 miles of wastewater pipes that run under Austin and 3,700 miles of water lines. It takes five years to check all of them, and many of those pipes are definitely showing their age. Under pressure from shifting ground due to the drought, they're cracking, breaking and coming apart at the seams.
"Water leaks can happen anywhere," Mayfield said. She added that hundreds of miles of aging pipes need replacement.
Crews are doing that now in some older Austin neighborhoods.
"Austin has always been very good about looking forward and planning ahead to maintain our aging infrastructure," Mayfield said. "It's a national problem that's been written about a lot."
Thanks to leaky and broken pipes, the city loses more than 3 billion gallons of water each year. And in the fourth year of a serious drought, it's waste the city and taxpayers can't afford.
During the next five years, the city plans to spend $125 million on pipe replacement.
Right now, that work is being done in the Pemberton/North University neighborhoods.
