Sioux Falls Water Tower Gets a Blast, Fresh Coat
More infrastructure maintenance is coming with the painting of the water tower at Menlo Park. A shiny new coat will be applied over the next couple of months.
Menlo water tower is receiving a new coat of paint to extend the life of the structure. According to Sioux Falls Water Superintendant Greg Anderson, says these structures were built to last. “Water towers are large, expensive pieces of infrastructure. We typically expect them to last 100 years.”
This tower located in Menlo Park at West 20th Street and South Menlo Avenue, was constructed in 1999 and is designed to store 1.5 million gallons of water. The reason for the maintenance is evident from the rust stains on the outside. “We really wanted to see where the bad spots were so we knew what type of recoating system we needed. Either we would clean it and recoat it or we would have to sandblast it. In our case, we’re going to have to do a complete blasting inside and outside. The failure of the painted coating between the steel and the primer is why you see a lot of the rust.”
Even though the process to remove old paint and rust is called sandblasting, Public Works Engineer Terry Van Dyke says the contractor will actually use metal filings. “It’s the same consistency as sand. They can blast and get the paint chips off, then use a very large vacuum to send it to a recycling machine where a very large magnet pulls the filings out so they can be used again.”
During the course of the project people will see a containment curtain placed around the tower during sandblasting and coating operations to prevent drift of sand or paint. Plus the crew will install a new railing on the top of tower to support communication antennas and a new access hatch on the top for safer access for maintenance and access ports for cables to antennas.
It is interesting to note that the tower is already out of service, but residential and business customers in the area have had no interruption of service. The City has conducted multiple tests with the water tower out of service in preparation for the recoating project. The testing has been successful, and the City does not expect noticeable impacts to water service for the nearby resident and commercial customers.
No streets will be closed for this project, but there will be no parking along the east side of Menlo Avenue, the west side of Walts Avenue, the south side of 20th Street, or the north side of 21st Street. The work is scheduled to be completed in November.
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