Crews work on the second phase of a project to replace the aging industrial water line across Redstone Arsenal.

The second phase of a multi-phase, multi-year effort to replace the decades-old industrial water line across Redstone Arsenal is underway, according to a project manager with the Garrison’s Directorate of Public Works.

DPW’s Ryan Williams said that the existing 36-inch concrete reinforced pipe with a steel liner is being replaced with polyethylene pipe.

“We’re upgrading the line after 70 to 80 years of service out of this line,” he said last week. For the second phase, “we started at Test Area 1 and we’re going up to the north side of Fowler Road through the NASA area. We’ve crossed Ranger Street, and we are crossing Raven Street right now.”

During the first phase, the pipe was replaced from Water Plant 1 on Shields Road to Test Area 1.

The entire project stretches about 80,000 linear feet in length, according to Williams.

The industrial water line provides critical mission support to the testing operations of Army and Marshall Space Flight Center/NASA tenants on Redstone, Sarah Brazzel, the lead management and program analyst at DPW’s Business Operations and Integration Division, said last year. The line also serves as a primary life, health, and safety system, supplying fire suppression water to many facilities on post.

The contractor for the first and second phases of the project is Athens-based Grayson Carter and Son Contracting.