use strict;
my $str = '3150779 | 3674-4 |Water Supply Plan
3637730 |
| 10903-155 | Layout 10903 DWG 155 29 M |
| 10903-155 | | Water Supply |';
my $regex = qr/^ *\|+ *| *\| *$|(\| *){2,}/mp;
my $subst = '\\1';
my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg;
print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html