HOBOKEN -- Officials say Hoboken has 41.1 miles of water mains and pipes coursing below its streets and sidewalks, many of them in danger of rupturing from corrosion or compound fractures caused by a century of pounding from construction and vehicle traffic above.

Persistent main breaks in recent years have lead to water outages or low pressure, boil-water advisories, flooded streets and traffic jams, lost business and even whole cars being swallowed by craters that open up when water rushing from a broken pipe washes away the soil beneath the pavement.



The rupture of a 36-inch main only days before Thanksgiving flooded the city's southwest corner and dampened holiday spirits, until the problem was patched by Suez Water, the private company that contracts with the city to provide its potable water.



But the City Council took a step to do something about problem Wednesday night, when members approved $5.2 million in bonds to pay for 10 high-priority projects in what may turn out to be a complete, if gradual replacement of the city's network of aging water mains and connecting pipes over the next 90 years.



In a presentation to the council, City Business Administrator Quentin Wiest said the 10 projects were the most critical among a list of 50 priorities to come out of system-wide survey and analysis by Suez, formerly known as United Water, under an for an "asset refurbishment program."



The list of 10 projects does not include replacement of water mains the length of Washington Street, a $5 million project that had already been approved by the council as part of a broader makeover of the city's main drag.



While the Mile-Square City is perhaps best known as the birthplace of Frank Sinatra and home to more than 100 liquor licenses, Wiest said Hoboken was also gaining a reputation for its aging infrastructure.

"I met somebody the other day and when I told them I was from Hoboken, they said the one thing they knew about Hoboken was that it had a lot of water main breaks," he told the council.



Mayor Dawn Zimmer, who put forward the bond ordinance for the council's approval, has made improving the city's infrastructure a priority since the Thanksgiving water main break, which business owners said hurt them economically during what should have been a busy shopping and dining week. Countless residents had to boil their tap water or go without it entirely, while others spent a grungy few days without showers.

Zimmer has been in talks with Suez over a new water supply contract with the city, and she is hoping to incorporate the refurbishment program into a new deal.



""We want to be pro-active, and we want to make this investment," Zimmer said in an interview outside City Hall just before the council's unanimous approval of the bond ordinance. "Obviously, it's important that everyone have reliable water here in the city and we don't have to deal with water main breaks."



The 50 priorities listed in the refurbishment program will cost an estimated total of $14.6 million, including a replacement of a metering chamber near the Hoboken-Jersey City border, on Newark Street at Jersey Avenue. The $1 million cost of the metering chamber project, one of the 10 approved on Wednesday night, would be split between Hoboken and the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority.



The 10 projects are located at:

Park Street, between 6th and 8th Street

Garden Street, between Observer Highway and 2nd Street

Garden between 12th and 14th Streets

Madison Street between 4th and 6th Streets

River Street between 1st and 4th

Clinton Street between 6th and 7th|

Jefferson Street between Newark and 1st Streets

Grand Street between 6th and 8th

7th Street between Adams and Grand Streets

Newark Street at Jersey Avenue

No time frame was given for completion of the top 10 projects, or the other 40 priorities identified by Suez.

But even those 50 projects -- totaling 33,000 linear feet, or about 6 miles, of pipe -- are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the city's existing 41-mile water network and its eventual need of replacement.



Wiest said a complete replacement would take about 90 years to complete, based on a rule of thumb of 1/3 to 2/3 miles per year established by the main industry group, the American Water Works Association.

And council members and Wiest debated various financing alternatives future projects, including grants from the state Environmental Infrastructure Trust Fund.

Council Vice President David Mello, who chairs the Health & Human/Environmental Services committee, suggested annual set-asides of capital funds on a pay-as-you-go basis, which could save taxpayers fund on the financing costs of borrowing or bond issues.



Mello also told Wiest that he hoped Hoboken's replacement schedule could be accelerated due the city's frequent problems with its system.



The councilman asked Wiest the age of the city's water pipes, and was surprised by the business administrator's response that there was little hard data on the subject, and that engineers often must rely on historical records on development throughout the city to glean approximate ages of buried or broken pipes. Wiest assured him, however, that meticulous records were being kept by Suez on more recent projects and repairs.



Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.