SCWA Swaps Out Transite Main on Copiague's Manor Lane and Great Neck Road

Crews for the Suffolk County Water Authority have replaced about 1,900 feet of transite water main beneath Manor Lane, Great Neck Road and nearby streets in Copiague, the authority said Thursday. A photograph released with the announcement shows workers and an excavator at a dug-up stretch of pavement beside a Marlin Drive street sign. Census Bureau and OpenStreetMap address data place Manor Lane and Marlin Drive a few hundred feet apart near South Great Neck Road.

Transite is an asbestos-cement pipe. The authority said it turns brittle over time and can crack when soil shifts or temperatures swing. The replacement pipe is ductile iron, which SCWA said is stronger under tension and bends under stress without breaking.

"Replacing aging water main in this community will help us better serve our customers the high-quality drinking water they expect from us," Chairman Charlie Lefkowitz said. "Investments like this help strengthen our water distribution system and ensure we can continue meeting the needs of our customers."

The authority did not say how old the Manor Lane and Great Neck Road mains were, what the work cost or when it began and ended.

In May 2022, SCWA said contractors were replacing nearly 5,000 feet of six-inch transite main elsewhere in Copiague, under Buena Vista Boulevard and six side streets, with 12-inch PVC pipe at a cost of $2.5 million. County Legislator Kevin McCaffrey said then that the mains in that neighborhood had gone in when it was first built in the 1950s.

On its projects page, the authority describes how a replacement usually unfolds. Crews lay the new main beside the old one, disinfect it and test it in the SCWA lab, then move each service line and hydrant over before the old pipe is retired and the street is repaved.

The authority's capital budget for fiscal 2027, which closes May 31, sets aside $27.5 million for replacing existing mains, picked by break history, age, material, hydraulic capacity and diameter. Its construction maintenance department plans to replace or rehabilitate more than 10 miles of main this fiscal year. SCWA counted 6,087 miles of main on May 31, 2025, and its budget estimates the system serves about 1.2 million people.