A major water main project is starting to get underway in Jefferson.

The Jefferson City Council approved in July a $395,763 bid from Morris Enterprises to replace a water main on Russell Street from Highway 4 to the wastewater treatment plant. Public Works Director Dave Morlan tells Raccoon Valley Radio this area has given them headaches over the years.

“I think we fix that just about every year, there’s a water main break down there. There’s like five or six places over the last few years that we’ve done it (fix the break). When we were fixing it, there’s a crack in one of the mains last time, when the guys went to drill a hole – they drill a hole at the end of the cracks to stop the crack from spreading – and they went to drill a hole and it took absolutely nothing to drill that hole through that main. It should’ve been a lot more work than it was. So it was easy to identify that that one is in need of repair or replacement.”    

Funding for the project was from the city’s allocated portion of the American Rescue Plan Act (APRA) funds, which water and wastewater projects are eligible for. City Administrator Mike Palmer says to expect some temporary street closures on Russell Street while work is being done.

“Probably what people will see a lot of is, there will be directional boring for a new eight-inch water line. There’ll be some cutting of the street, crossing the roads from Russell to say Maple Street, there’s some tie-in along there. That’s where some of the closures there’ll be just maybe to local traffic only.”

Palmer adds the project is expected to take until November to complete.