As the saying goes, “An once of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

The adage, however, is not often applied to state and municipal infrastructures. On the state level, Gov. Gina Raimondo is wrestling with how to repair failing bridges before they become unsafe. Locally, while the City Council increased funding for road repairs, which became a hot-button issue after last winter’s extended periods to freeze and thaw, Warwick is a long way from smoothing out the bumps on its 400 miles of roads.

And then there are city schools. If they weren’t being closed at the end of the current academic year, both Aldrich and Gorton Junior High Schools would be faced with fire code improvements costing millions. The newest of Warwick schools are at the Robert J. Shapiro Toll Gate Educational Complex and they are hardly new. The newest of those buildings was built in the mid-1970s. The department has been patching roofs and replacing boilers as best it can.

The exception is the Warwick Fire Department, which in the last 20 years has opened new stations on Post Road next to Ann & Hope and Station One in Apponaug. And before the New Year, the department plans to open its all-new station in Potowomut. How do you make sense of this?

Roads don’t collapse all of a sudden, so it’s easy to postpone maintenance, especially when times are tough and budgets are tight. As for schools, it’s understandable with declining enrollments that city officials would not want to spend more money on buildings when schools are closing. In addition, building a new school is an expensive proposition, a major commitment.

Comparatively, however, a fire station is low cost and an easy sell. Who could argue against improved safety and the latest in firefighting equipment?

That’s why we were impressed by the preventive maintenance efforts taken by the Warwick Sewer Authority. Buried pipes, unlike potholes, are out of sight and out of mind. As long as toilets can be flushed and showers taken, what’s the worry?

But like roads, bridges and schools, the sewer system is showing signs of its age.

Janine Burke-Wells, the authority’s executive director, assessed conditions and identified what she called the system’s “Achilles heel,” a 650-foot-long section of the main line feeding the wastewater treatment plant. That section of pipe is as old as the system and is under Route 95.

Imagine what would happen if it collapsed. The sewer system would come to a halt, as would traffic as the road was torn up. The cost of putting everything back in place in terms of dollars and aggravation would be off the charts.

Last week, the authority ensured that wouldn’t happen for the foreseeable future. A new pipe was inserted inside the original pipe.

The total cost of the project is under $800,000, and the money will come from an industrial pre-treatment account, meaning customers won’t see an increase in their rates. It’s money spent that no one sees, or for that matter ever thinks about. For those reasons, we think it all the more commendable that the authority took the initiative and did it.