Waterline and municipal waterworks
Water and sewer construction for municipalities, including directional bores up to 24 inches where open-cutting a street is not an option.
Watermain work, including the crossings nobody wants to open-cut
Municipal water and sewer construction is its own discipline. The materials, the testing, the disinfection, and the inspection regime are all stricter than dry utility work, and the consequence of getting it wrong is a boil order rather than a service outage.
The capability that brings cities to us is boring watermain rather than trenching it. We directional bore up to 24 inches, which covers most municipal transmission and distribution crossings, so a main can pass under a state highway, a rail crossing, a river, or a downtown street that cannot be closed for two weeks.
That combination, a waterworks crew and a boring fleet in the same company, is unusual. It means a city does not have to hire a water contractor and then watch them sub out every crossing on the project.
Written for city engineers and public works directors
Municipal water projects are bid, inspected, and defended in public. What a city engineer needs from a contractor is a crew that works to spec, documents what it did, and does not create a change order every time the plan meets the ground.
We work on municipal water and sewer as prime and as a specialty subcontractor on the crossings, and we would rather be told which of those a project needs than assume.
What waterworks scope covers
Water and sewer construction to municipal spec, with the trenchless capability that keeps streets open.
Watermain bores to 24 inches
Directional bores sized for municipal transmission and distribution mains, under highways, rail, waterways, and streets that cannot be closed.
Watermain installation
Main installed, restrained, and tied in to the city's material and joint specification, open-cut or trenchless as the design calls for.
Services and hydrants
Service lines, curb stops, valves, and hydrant setting as part of a main project or as standalone scope.
Sanitary and storm
Sanitary sewer and storm work alongside water, so a single corridor is opened once rather than three times.
Testing and disinfection
Pressure testing, disinfection, and sampling coordinated with the city so the main is accepted rather than argued about.
Restoration and close-out
Compaction, curb, pavement, and turf restored to the city's standard, with as-builts at handover.
Why cities put waterworks crossings with us
A watermain crossing under a live street is the part of a municipal project with the least tolerance for a learning curve.
- Directional bores up to 24 inches, in-house, on our own rigs.
- Waterworks crews and boring crews in the same company, so crossings are not subcontracted.
- Work bid and built to municipal specification, with testing and disinfection coordinated rather than assumed.
- Roots in underground construction since 1987, through the crews we acquired with Kruse Underground.
- As-builts and documentation at close-out, because a city has to live with this main for fifty years.
FAQ
Waterline and municipal waterworks questions
Still have a question? Call us at (651) 529-1527 and we'll walk you through it.
Up to 24 inches, which covers most municipal transmission and distribution crossings. That is the capability that lets a city route a main under a highway, a rail crossing, a river, or a downtown street instead of open-cutting it and closing the street for weeks.
Both. We take whole water and sewer packages as prime, and we are also brought in as a specialty subcontractor purely for the crossings on a project someone else is running. Tell us which role a project needs at scope review.
Yes, coordinated with the city so the sequence, the sampling, and the acceptance are agreed before the main goes in rather than negotiated after it. Water work lives or dies on documentation.
Request a bid
Send us the scope.
Plans, a route, a permit set, or a description of the crossing. We will come back with questions before we come back with a number, because a bid built on assumptions helps nobody.
- info@millermn.com
- Building across MN, ND, SD, IA, WI
- Boring, plowing, blowing, excavation, waterline, and aerial
Request a bid
Tell us about the project and an estimator will follow up.