{"id":282654,"date":"2026-09-10T02:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T02:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282654\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T02:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T02:42:08","slug":"in-the-wake-of-major-main-breaks-pennsylvania-american-water-says-it-will-move-up-plans-to-replace-aging-downtown-pipes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/282654\/","title":{"rendered":"In the wake of major main breaks, Pennsylvania American Water says it will move up plans to replace aging downtown pipes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time frame is moving up to ‘accelerate infrastructure improvements,’ water company says<\/p>\n

SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Pennsylvania American Water plans to replace one mile of aging water main next spring in downtown Scranton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Originally planned for 2028, the water utility said they were moving up the time frame to “accelerate infrastructure improvements” to modernize the city’s water system.<\/p>\n

The planned replacement comes after two water main breaks over 10 days plagued hundreds of downtown residents and businesses earlier this summer.\u00a0<\/a>The water utility also said they will award Scranton Tomorrow, an economic development non-profit, a $50,000 American Water Charitable Foundation grant.<\/p>\n


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The water utility maintains 300 miles of of water main in Scranton, \u00a0roughly a sixth of which was installed in the 19th-century. The company said it replaces 5-to-10 miles of aging pipe annually.<\/p>\n

The city’s aging water infrastructure came into clear view in July when two large water mains broke and left downtown denizens with spotty water service for days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need help from the corporate leadership of PWC to understand that Scranton cannot sustain water mains that are 140 years old,” Mayor Paige Cognetti said at the time.<\/p>\n

The project will center on replacing the existing 24-inch and 6-inch water mains with new 16-inch water mains along North Washington Avenue between Lackawanna Avenue and Gibson Street and on Mulberry Street between North Washington Avenue and Madison Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should something happen, they said the new infrastructure should allow crews to isolate sections for maintenance and repair without impacting a larger zone.<\/p>\n

The project is currently in the design and engineering phase. They said they were working closely with the city engineering consultant to align the project with planned downtown streetscape improvements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Time frame is moving up to ‘accelerate infrastructure improvements,’ water company says SCRANTON, Pa. \u2014 Pennsylvania American Water…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-282654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}