Attend Lighthouse Park water main meeting

Historic City News readers who live or work near Lighthouse Park, the next part of town that will undergo water main replacement, are invited to attend a public meeting regarding the project on Monday, October 1 starting at 6:00 p.m. in the Alcazar Room of City Hall located at 75 King Street in St Augustine.

According to Paul K Williamson, the Director of Public Affairs for the City of St Augustine, staff and representatives of the contractor will attend the meeting and be available to answer questions from the public.

“Work on the project will get underway starting in early November,” Williamson told Historic City News. “We are planning to be completed before March 1, 2013.”

The scope of work during this project will include the replacement of aging, cast iron pipes whose corrosive nature is often the source of “red water”.

Pipes to be replaced run along five streets:
• Lighthouse Avenue
• Magnolia Drive
• White Street
• Carver Street
• Red Cox Drive

Using a new hybrid technology that incorporates both directional drilling and pipe bursting, open cuts in the street are nearly eliminated. That means that at no time will these streets be closed to traffic.

Water will have to be shut-off for approximately 45 minutes when old water meters are replaced with new ones, and there will be sporadic periods of water outage.

In each instance, residents and businesses in the affected area will be notified of the shut off, and access to and from property will not become an issue.

This project is funded through the 2011 Capital Improvements Bond.

In addition to the Lighthouse project, water main replacements are currently underway in Lincolnville and will begin on Palmer Street, Joiner Street, Water Street and others areas in north city after the first of the year.

Other completed projects, also funded by the bond, are the replacement of two pump stations, the Riberia Street Reconstruction project Phase I, a new force main across the San Sebastian River, water mains in Davis Shores and along North Park Avenue.

All total, the investment in water main replacement this fiscal year is approximately $1.2 million dollars.