TAMPA, Fla. — Some of Tampa's wastewater pipes are 80 to 100 years old, and the city says this is a much needed upgrade.
The project spans over 19 miles of new water main in four different neighborhoods. For those that live in the area, it’s a welcome relief.
Richard Mas has lived in Forest Hills for the better part of four decades, he's no stranger to water problems.
"It's needed," Mas said. "We needed a bath because water pressure was low. You know, I can't turn on the sprinkler and flush the toilet at same time."
But a $2.9 billion infrastructure project aims to alleviate those issues.
"We respond to burst water pipes, and wastewater cave-ins to the tune of multiple millions of dollars a year," Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said. "So this will be a savings, monetarily, but also, it will increase the water pressure in the neighborhood for forest hills and other neighborhoods around the city."
With cutting edge techniques, the city trenches the roadways, burst the aging pipe and replace it with a newer model. The process is designed to cause as little disturbance as possible and those who came out to see it in action were relieved.
"They have the most innovative technique where they just have a little hole in the ground on one side," Beverly Kieny, who lives in the area, said. "And as it goes through, it bursts the pipe still underground and puts the liner in."
Neighbors say they don't mind dealing with a little construction to fix a decades-old problem.
"I can put up with all this. I’ve waited forty years," Mas said.
The goal is to lay 20 miles of pipeline a year and to line 30 miles of wastewater pipeline a year.