AMERICAN SpiralWeld Pipe Delivers for City of Phoenix Drought Pipeline Project

Buried 20 feet beneath the dense, urban streets of Phoenix, Arizona, is 66-inch spiral-welded steel pipe to ensure the city’s residents have access to clean and reliable water. The pipe was installed for the City of Phoenix’s $280 million Drought Pipeline Project that began in 2021 and was completed in December 2022. The pipeline will pump water from the Salt and Verde Rivers to North Phoenix and help address drought conditions and projected river shortages from the Colorado River.

AMERICAN SpiralWeld Pipe provided 4.3 miles of 66-inch spiral-welded steel pipe for Segment 2 of the project with Sundt Construction serving as the general contractor. “This project was divided into two segments with AMERICAN and Sundt partnering on Segment 2,” said Sundt Construction Senior Project Manager Chris Elison.

City of Phoenix residents get water from the Colorado, Salt and Verde Rivers with more than 400,000 residents in North Phoenix getting most of their water from the Colorado River. With impending droughts and increased demand leading to more shortages from the Colorado River, the water supply in North Phoenix had become unreliable. This new pipeline allows North Phoenix to also use water from the Salt and Verde Rivers and provides flexibility and redundancy within the Phoenix water system.

“Installing 66-inch pipe in a developed part of the city was challenging,” said Clayton Freed, civil engineer and team leader at the City of Phoenix Water Services Department. “Utilities had to be replaced or relocated to allow for the pipe installation. We had businesses, freeways and schools located near the pipe installation routes and continually worked to minimize disruptions to businesses and people, which required a lot of outreach and coordination.”

Garnering public support for the project and investment in water infrastructure also required community outreach. “Phoenix is an example of a city that was being very proactive,” Freed continued. “Our city leadership and water utility were advocates for water and ensuring our customers had water for years to come. With time and with worsening drought conditions, we saw people’s attitudes about this project and investment in water infrastructure change. The public really got behind the importance of this project and infrastructure.”

Elison said, “This project started as a concept 10-11 years ago and required years of studies and planning. It was a huge undertaking for the City of Phoenix and required a lot of foresight to implement this project and ensure residents had reliable water services for years to come. Now that it’s complete, this pipeline can deliver up to 75 MGD (million gallons a day) of water to North Phoenix.”

It was this forward thinking that led to this project being selected Water System Project of the Year by the Arizona Water Association in April 2024 as well as Best Water Project by Engineering-News Record’s 2024 Southwest Best Records.

“The 66-inch AMERICAN SpiralWeld Pipe for the project was manufactured in Columbia, South Carolina,” said AMERICAN Ductile Iron Pipe/AMERICAN SpiralWeld Pipe Territory Manager Matt Rosenwald. “The pipe was shipped by railcar more than 2,000 miles from Columbia to Phoenix, where it was stored near the project site. It was a major benefit for Sundt that the pipe wasn’t stored on the job site but was easily accessible at the off-site location. As pipe was needed, it was trucked to the job site.”

AMERICAN SpiralWeld Pipe Project Manager John Mark Reedy was the main point of contact between Sundt and AMERICAN throughout the project. “It was my job to translate Sundt’s needs into direction for our shop and to help solve any challenges that came up along the way,” he said. “Sundt was great to work with, which helps projects like this progress smoothly.”

Reedy noted that one of AMERICAN’s strengths was ensuring pipe was there when Sundt needed it. The pipe was sent by rail to Arizona and then delivered to the job site a couple of miles away via truck. “We created a guide for different pipe and worked with the railyard every day to make sure the jobsite received the pipe they needed,” he explained.

“Everyone with AMERICAN was great to work with” Elison said. “John Mark Reedy was super helpful and was great with getting back with me about questions we had. It was a great partnership.”

The City of Phoenix Water Services Department is one of the nation’s largest utilities, providing safe and clean drinking water to more than 1.7 million customers. It maintains 7,000 miles of water lines, 5,000 miles of wastewater lines and eight treatment plants within its 540-square-mile service area. To learn more, visit City of Phoenix Water Services Department.