Collaboration Solves Water Infrastructure Demand in North Carolina

Three cities in North Carolina managed to collaborate to solve some of their issues between them.

Albemarle, 40 miles east of Charlotte, has excess capacity in its water system and needed new customers to defray costs.

Concord and Kannapolis, close by, needed a new source of supply but were set back by the cost of enhancing their systems independently.

From that dilemma, the three cities came together and worked to build a $21 million, 18-mile water transmission main that mutually benefitted all three cities.

The Albemarle Water Transmission Main was due to be completed in Spring 2015.

AMERICAN Industries reports:

“The water arrangement provided by the new transmission main will help the entire area, which lies northeast of Charlotte near the South Carolina border. During a recent drought, for example, Kannapolis and Concord both had to rely on connections to other systems to ensure adequate water supply — Concord with Charlotte and Kannapolis with Salisbury.

“The project supplies Concord and Cabarrus County with a water source that is not as reactive to drought conditions as our current reservoirs,” Concord’s Putnam said. “It also will meet future development water needs for an additional 20-year planning horizon.”

This kind of innovative success is very encouraging and these cities in North Carolina should be commended for this collaborative effort in solving their water infrastructure demand problems.

Looking ‘outside the box’ when examining infrastructure demand management, has the potential to lead to this sort of innovative solution.  

The long-term benefits and savings can be huge when infrastructure asset management practice tools are applied.

PHOTO CREDIT: Welcome to Albemarle by Jimmy Emerson, DVM via Flickr Creative Commons License