Project: Emory Gardens Water Line Replacement 

Client: Emory Gardens Home Owners' Association

Location: Decatur, GA

Objective: The objective of this project was to install new 8-inch diameter water lines to replace an existing 2-inch service line and provide fire protection by installing adequate fire hydrants for a residential condominium development.

In November 2005, Metals & Materials Engineers was retained by the Emory Gardens Home Owners' Association to install new water lines in the residential community. The original 2-inch galvanized pipe was aged and the condominium management was experiencing frequent pipeline failures throughout the development. Management contracted MME to design a new distribution system that will also provide adequate fire fighting capability, and to carry out construction of the system. The development consists of 72 two and three-bedroom units that were originally connected at several points to the original distribution system. One challenge was identifying where the connections enter individual buildings since no accurate drawing of the piping was available. The project involves site inspection to determine configuration of the original pipe system, develop site plans for the proposed system, coordinate the permitting process with DeKalb County, install the new 8-inch lines and connect to the County distribution system, pressure test and sterilize the new lines, and change over the service connections to the new lines at each building. MME’s GPR team was involved to locate the old pipes and service connections. On completion of the project, MME prepared an as-built drawing showing all of the new pipe system and individual connections.