Walla Walla Utility Upgrades Infrastructure
Northwestern Gas and Electric Company launches a major project to replace aging gas mains in the business district and extend service to residential neighborhoods.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Carrying out a program of extensive improvements formulated at the time of the purchase of the system, the Northwestern Gas and Electric company is replacing several thousand feet of antiquated and inadequate gas mains in the business center and preparing to extend the service to many other residence districts of the city at present unsupplied. A force of men were set to work yesterday excavating for a new six-inch main to extend from First street to Boyer avenue and another force to replace the two-inch fibre pipe in Boyer avenue with a four-inch cast main. The East Main street pipe will replace a two-inch pipe that has done service for several years and become totally inadequate to supply that section of the business district. Following closely on these extensions will come the building of the company's new plant on the Walla Walla river and a subsequent bettering of the lighting system of the city.
“The East Main street pipe will replace a two-inch pipe that has done service for several years and become totally inadequate to supply that section of the business district.”
Infrastructure expansion in the early 1900s was driven by the rapid growth of the city and the push for modernization. Today, Walla Walla faces similar civic debates over utility capacity and the transition of energy infrastructure as the city continues to grow.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.