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Water And Gas Meter Upgrades Ahead Of Schedule In Las Cruces

Completing a project ahead of schedule is always a good thing! In the case of the citywide upgrade of water and gas meters, Las Cruces is seeing an excellent example of the City’s PEAK Performance initiative and is cheering the progress of the project.

“There has been a great coordination between Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) and Las Cruces Utilities (LCU),” said Dr. Jorge A. Garcia, P.E., LCU director. “The project progress has exceeded our expectations, especially with their commitment for making sure that all of our customers are satisfied with the speed of the updating of their meters.”

As of mid-January, 20,395 small and intermediate automated water meters have been installed (71% complete), and 89 large commercial water meters have been installed (95% complete), 2,788 water meter retrofits are done (75% complete), and 9,567 gas meter retrofits are finished (35% complete). That means the project is several weeks ahead of schedule.

You might have seen the RTS Water Solutions (RTS) workers with bright yellow vests or pullovers in your neighborhood, bent over your water meter or using a power drill to switch out the face plate on your gas meter, but you probably didn’t see them for long. These workers are part of JCI’s work group, which is assisting LCU update customer water and gas meters.

Thanks to well-trained crews a water meter upgrade takes about 15 minutes, especially if the box and lines are clean. RTS has a special crew that goes ahead of the installers to make sure that access is easy. Then, the second crew comes to install the ERTs (an Encoder Receiver Transmitter supplied locally by Itron) and leak sensors in the water meter box. They also run the water line to make sure everything works properly and then carefully close the water meter box that will now have wires attached to the inside of the water meter box lid.

“They’ve really been dedicated in resolving customer issues when it comes to the meter installs,” said LCU Regulatory Environmental Services/Technical Support Administrator, Carl N. Clark, P.E.

Homeowners are reminded that because of the upgraded technology, water meters require more gentle handling. If the lid is not opened carefully, the wires may be torn away. That will signal a tampering of the box to the monitoring system, which can result in a $200 tampering fine.

While the project is now heading into the central and older sections of Las Cruces, Clark still anticipates staying ahead of schedule. The project start was July 2018 and was initially anticipated to take 22 months, however, due to the efficient water meter installations it may end sooner.

Submitted by Las Cruces Utilities at 528-3500 from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Las Cruces Utilities provides GAS – WATER – WASTEWATER – SOLID WASTE services to approximately 100,000 Las Cruces residents and businesses.