A contractor was on Alna’s Cross Road Sept. 3 replacing a hydrant that broke last winter. The underground pipe to the hydrant broke for an unknown reason, Fire Chief Mike Trask said as a crew from Hanley Construction of Bristol worked to install the new hydrant and pipe.

The outgoing system had been in use five or six years; it replaced one that a school bus struck, Trask said. 

A man-made pond had been drained for the crew to get at the work area. If a fire had occurred nearby over the winter after the pipe broke, the fire department could have cut though the ice to reach the water or transported water from other hydrants in town, Trask said.

Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum sits across the road from the hydrant. The nonprofit museum has agreed to split the cost of replacing it with the fire department, President Stephen Zuppa said.

“It’s in our best interests to have a working hydrant next to the museum. Besides, we like to be good neighbors,” Zuppa said as the work continued. At mid-morning Thursday, the temperature was topping 80 F.

Work started Sept. 2 and was expected to finish Sept. 3, Trask said. He estimated that the project would cost about $5,000. Asked for comment on the museum’s help with the cost, he said, “I think it’s great.”

The museum will pay half of the final cost for the project, Zuppa said. The fire department’s portion will come out of the department’s hydrant budget, Trask said.