The first of a series of major water-line repair and replacement projects, paid for by a $40 million revenue bond Asheville City Council approved in 2007, will begin Tuesday.
The project to install about a mile-long length of new 24-inch water line on Kenilworth Road had been scheduled to begin today, but some final materials had yet to be delivered, said Chad Pierce, the city’s water-engineering services manager. The Kenilworth project, which is broken into three phases, involves replacing 11,000 linear feet of 24-inch line and 1,800 linear feet of 12-inch line. Buckeye Construction of Canton is performing the work on the first phase, which will reduce Kenilworth Road to one lane in the immediate area of the work zone. The first phase is expected to take about 12 weeks to complete, Pierce said.
It’s the first of 11 major construction projects to make repairs to the city’s water-line infrastructure, work that has been deferred for years. The other projects will begin in the spring, Pierce said. Other work includes adding new valves to lines, installing back-up power to the water system’s 38 pump stations and adding new fire hydrants.
Last November, the city approved bids totaling $35.5 million for the 11 projects. The city plans to spend a total of $65 million to fix the system. Water customers will pay for the bonds and other repairs through a capital-improvement fee that already appears on bills.
— Jason Sandford, multimedia editor
Please do not use the word “broken” when referring a water line installation project.