Infrastructure Week 2019 is officially underway! We’re joining the campaign to highlight the stuff that keeps our city running and starting off with some big news:

Mayor Jim Kenney just announced the appointment of the next Philadelphia Water Department Commissioner, Randy E. Hayman!

A veteran of the water utility industry, he will take the reins from Acting Commissioner Sarah Stevenson starting this June. Stevenson is leading our Department through the transition and took the helm at PWD following Debra McCarty's April retirement.

Hayman is a partner at the environmental Washington, DC law firm Beveridge & Diamond and previously served as general counsel at two major water utilities—DC Water and Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District.

Mayor Kenney, working closely with the City’s Managing Director Office and Deputy Commissioner of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability Michael Carroll, made this leadership decision after a thorough national search that recognized the important work our 2,000 employees do every day—providing Philadelphia’s 1.5+ million residents with clean water and protecting our waterways.

Hayman will also help guide the important infrastructure investments that we’ll be highlighting during Infrastructure Week 2019.

Given that Philadelphia has approximately 3,100 miles of water mains, 3,700 miles of sewers, 79,000 inlets, 25,000 fire hydrants and various pumping stations throughout the city, it’s an important and challenging job.

Stay tuned to learn more about his plans and priorities!

Read the Full Mayor's Office Announcement

Why Follow Infrastructure Week?

We know: our customers have busy lives.

PWD's National Infrastructure Week Partners

As members of the Value of Water Coalition, the National Association for Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), and the American Water Works Association's Partnership for Safe Water, we are joining a national campaign to highlight the water side of Infrastructure Week.

But, even if you’re the kind of person who's happy as long as clean water comes out of the tap and the dirty water goes away, we hope some of these amazing photos and impressive stats and stories will leave you with a better appreciation of what it takes to run a modern water utility.

We have a diverse portfolio of infrastructure investments that play a crucial role in making our city run, and this is your invitation to explore some of the projects Philadelphia residents (and their water bills) make possible.

First up: We’ll take a look at highlights from our recently completed Drinking Water Master Plan.

A 25-year, $2.5 billion strategic vision for upgrading and expanding Philadelphia’s core drinking water infrastructure and protecting the top-quality water we depend on well into the next century, the Drinking Water Master Plan embodies Infrastructure Week’s theme: Build for Tomorrow. Starting Now.

In fact, the plan’s guiding principles—Building reliable infrastructure for today. Investing for a resilient tomorrow—perfectly align with that call to action, and we’ve already begun work on some major projects.

One such project involves installing massive new water mains that will make our treatment plants more resilient and help ensure reliable service:

Water mains 10-feet in diameter are being installed underground. A man in a hardhat stands in a pit on one of the mains and helps direct a crane lowering another 10-foot pipe to connect to the other segment.

A new section of a 10-foot water main is lowered into the ground. These mains make our infrastructure more dependable.

One of the 10 key projects that make up the Master Plan’s big-ticket items, the water mains being installed are 10 feet in diameter—more than big enough to drive an SUV through!

Lest you think that’s par for the course, consider that the vast majority of Philly’s mains are measured in inches, not feet.

Dive Into the Drinking Water Master Plan

Check out a summary of the plan we made for customers and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more highlights and details throughout Infrastructure Week.