Indiana American Water Finishes $24.5 Million Gary Main Overhaul

Indiana American Water announced October 6 that it has largely finished a $24.5 million Gary initiative that laid roughly 10,000 feet of new water main, enlarging pipe over 70 years old-previously 16 and 20 inches-to sizes ranging from 24 to 36 inches, while also swapping out more than 100 lead service lines. Rex Construction built the project and DLZ handled design and inspection, with only one last connection still remaining at the Borman Park Water Treatment Plant. The upsized mains feed the Borman Park distribution zone that serves U.S. Steel Gary Works, ArcelorMittal Indiana Harbor, and Cleveland-Cliffs Burns Harbor, and U.S. Steel's announced restart of its Gary Tin Mill, which brings back 225 jobs, means process-water and fire-flow demand in that corridor is growing rather than holding steady. The lead service line replacements also carry a cost-recovery angle: under Indiana's Distribution System Improvement Charge rules, lead line costs are excluded from the normal 10% surcharge cap, giving Indiana American a built-in incentive to bundle lead line work into active capital projects like this one.