Though water main installation work along Main Street in the area of Oak Street should wrap up by Halloween, the project will become hugely disruptive when it moves downtown next summer, officials say.
Aquarion originally was to start in the downtown area and then move south on Main Street, but reversed that plan in order to allow for more planning and to re-bid the project, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
The company is “cognizant of the fact that they are in the area and downtown,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held Tuesday via videoconference.
“The problem is that the materials are there and the existing main—which is called ‘stovepipe’—is a very weak type of pipe, and experiences water main breaks several times a year,” Mann said. “And we are getting into that season again. And a lot of the businesses have been affected by that, either by closure or not having water or by direct effect as far as water entering their property, especially properties between Locust and East [Avenues], where by the lower properties on Forest Street and the upper properties on Main Street we have had significant damage to a couple of properties there.”
The comments came in response to a question from Selectman Nick Williams, during a discussion a different road project (on River Street).
Regarding the first phase of the two-phase project, now underway, Mann said workers will continue to install the water main by way of either Oak Street or Lakeview Avenue to the downtown (to Locust).
“The closure that they are in now will be the closure that they stay with through as far as the Harrison Avenue/Woodland Road area,” he said. “The extension does not go much further past Oak Street. So anything further north will be unaffected. So we are asking residents to divert onto Cherry or onto Oak and up onto South Avenue and go around that way or a convenient one is to go down Lakeview Avenue to 123.”
Williams said, “It’s kind of a traffic nightmare at certain times of the day.”
Williams asked how old the pipe is (1950s) and, noting that it’s not a town project, what it will cost to replace it ($1.5 million last estimate).
Mann said, “They are aware of where they will be and how much havoc it will cause.”
The installation is not related to a water main project that Mann described in December that will address regional distribution.
I live at the corner of Oak & Main and the disruption in this neighborhood has been almost unbearble. Oak Street is barely two lanes wide (with no sidewalks!) but it became a major artery for traffic diverted from southbound Main. I cannot imagine the nightmare that awaits our business district. I’m so grateful I can walk uptown!