Notice a change in some of Rockdale’s fire hydrants?
If you haven’t yet, you will.
All of the city’s 300 hydrants are undergoing testing, and getting new paint jobs, in a project which will take about a month, according to City Manager Chris Whittaker.
There’s a lot more to it than just decoration.
When the project is complete, volunteer firefighters arriving at any blaze will be able to know the pumping capacity just by looking at the color of the hydrant’s cap. It works like this:
• Red, below 500 gallons-per-minute (GPM).
• Orange, 500 to 999 GPM.
• Green, 1,000 to 1,499 GPM.
• Blue, 1,500 GPM or more.
Look at the photo with this story. You can tell this hydrant is capable of putting out between 1,000 and 1,499 GPM.
That could be mighty useful information if you’re a firefighter pulling up on the north side of the 1,100 block of West Cameron Avenue (US 79) some day or night, because that’s where this hydrant is.
Whittaker said any hydrant found not to be in working order will be covered with a black plastic trash bag.
The base of every hydrant is being painted silver.
GIS—Whittaker said in addition to repainting and flow-testing the new program is collecting data for the city’s Geographic Information System (GIS).
“The contractor collects coordinates for future reference,” he said. “Once all the data has been collected, the information for each fire hydrant is being uploaded into the GIS for water and wastewater systems. This will allow us to see all this information on tables and computers for multiple viewers.”
“This is going to create a permanent electronic record,” Whittaker said.
LOW PRESSURE—He said water customers may notice a few problems while the remainder of the month-long program takes place.
“It’s going to take a while to get to all 300 meters,” Whittaker said.
“This will cause some low pressure situations and the appearance of water leaks throughout the city,” he added.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.