Friday, January 07, 2000
New water main in Whitewater fails test
Pressure woes add to controversy of messy project
BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WHITEWATER TWP. — Already behind schedule, a controversial county project to install water and sewer lines under Harrison Avenue has sprung a leak.
Several, in fact.
The water main, just completed as part of a $2.5 million utility extension effort, failed its first pressure test. It leaked at points where the pipes connect to emergency cut-off valves, said Cincinnati Water Works engineer Mark Raffenberg.
It is not yet clear whether the problem is a manufacturing defect in the valves or faulty installation, he said. County officials are trying to determine whom to hold responsible for costly repairs.
In the meantime, residents are left to deal with construction and detours on Harrison Avenue between Ohio 128 in Miamitown and a point 500 feet past Buena Vista Road. They had thought the project would be complete by mid-December, in time to resurface the busy thoroughfare before winter set in.
They were wrong.
The project first fell behind schedule when Schweitzer Construction Co. ran into underground rocks and other problems related to installing sanitary sewer lines more than 30 feet underground, said Hamilton County construction engineer Steve Mary.
With the water line complications, the project won't be completed for at least another two weeks, Mr. Mary said.
“Everybody is complaining,” said Gina Schwegler, one of several Harrison Avenue residents who didn't want public utility service in the first place.
Some said they couldn't afford to pay for it, and fear it will bring rapid development to their mostly rural township — one of the last areas of Hamilton County not served by public water and sewer lines. But petition drives and efforts to fight county commissioners failed, and construction began last fall.
“At first you couldn't get down the hill (into Miamitown) — now you can't get to Harrison without going all the way around. It's just been an aggravation,” Ms. Schwegler said.
The water main installation was broken up into phases and will eventually stretch along Harrison Avenue about 31/2 miles to the edge of Miami-Whitewater Forest. But the phases are being financed differently, with some residents assessed for the serv ice while others just up the road aren't paying at all.
Township officials who protested, but were powerless to stop the project, are now further aggravated by delays.
It is too late in the season to properly repave the road, so residents and emergency crews will have to deal with a rough temporary surface through the winter and more construction come spring.
“We have to bear the brunt of the pain,” said Trustee Hubert Brown. “All the while the road is closed, people are hassled and safety services are compromised. It's just not a good deal, but there's not anything the township can do about it.
“The county is going to do what the county is going to do.”
Schweitzer Construction is battling buried rocks and dropping temperatures to finish the final 500 feet of the sanitary sewer line, said company estimator Jerry Maringer.
“You always anticipate some (problems) when you're digging this deep,” he said. “If it gets too cold, there again you lose production. ... But we'll keep plugging away here. It's just a matter of time.”
The water line may take longer to repair, since most of it has already been buried and covered with a temporary road surface. But at least some of the problem areas that have been identified are in underground “chambers” that will allow access without excavation, Mr. Raffenberg said.
And residents would not have been able to tap into the system anyway, at least until a pump station is built atop the hill in 2001.
County officials are still assessing the extent of the water main problem.
“We have not got any information concerning impact from the standpoint of additional cost, or if it is going to delay the project any further,” Mr. Mary said.
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