After more than 20 water main breaks in the past four years, Zanesville is moving forward with a $2.9 million project to replace aging waterlines and repave Center Drive, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported.
The project will mark the first phase of a broader, decade-long effort to modernize critical water infrastructure across the area, according to the Times Recorder. The city expects to put the project out to bid before the end of the year and estimates work on Center Drive will begin in April, the Times Recorder reported.
The full scope will replace water lines on Fairway Lane from Brandywine Boulevard, then on Country Club Drive, Center Drive and Taylor Street, ending at Maple Avenue, according to the Times Recorder. The Center Drive segment is first because it is the stretch with the most problems, Zanesville Public Service Director Scott Brown told the Times Recorder.
Center Drive’s existing 6-inch water main has broken at least 20 times in four years, according to a city ordinance cited by the Times Recorder. The city will replace it with about 4,500 feet of new 12-inch line and then repave the road, the Times Recorder reported. Brown told the Times Recorder the roads in that area have not been paved in more than a decade, on top of the repeated breaks.
The project is estimated at about $2.5 million for waterline work and another $400,000 for paving, funded by a loan from the Ohio Water Development Authority, according to the Times Recorder. Brown told the Times Recorder the goal is to advertise bids around Dec. 1, award a contract after Jan. 1 and break ground around April 1.
Repaving will be a mill-and-fill — milling down the asphalt and laying new asphalt on top — rather than a full-depth replacement, and the project does not add new storm sewers or curb and gutter, Brown told the Times Recorder. The road was originally built with concrete in the 1950s, and shifting in that base lets groundwater come up through the surface, he told the Times Recorder.
Brown cautioned, in remarks reported by the Times Recorder, that a full replacement with storm sewers and gutters could double or triple the cost to between $4 million and $8 million. The city is proceeding with the narrower fix first, treating Center Drive as what Brown told the Times Recorder is a linchpin for that quadrant’s water supply.
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