ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The City of Zanesville has taken a proactive stance on handling infrastructure development and repair and Mayor Don Mason announced an upcoming waterline replacement and boil advisory.
The work is scheduled for the Putnam Hill area where the aging pipes have reached their lifespan and Mason noted that mineralization and sediment buildup is affecting water pressure.
“I’ll just say in the areas of Cliffwood, Baker, Shelby, Perry Lane, Carey Street, we have about 150 homes that will be affected,” Mason said. “So what we’ve been trying to do is replace the service to those homes, the distribution system, so that number one it will help improve the water pressure along with the new towers but also it will help reduce the amount of in-service interruptions they have in the coming years because they’re sitting on aging pipes right now.”
The cost for the waterline replacement is estimated at $180,000 dollars but the theory is that by proactively maintaining the infrastructure now, costly and inconvenient repairs can be avoided in the future.
“We’re hoping this project can be completed entirely Thursday night between 11 and Friday morning around 6,” Mason said. “The reason we recommend a boil advisory, just through a limited time period, is just in case any bacteria or other type of contaminants get into the system. We’re not anticipating it but it’s just standard boilerplate required by… basically health authorities.”
The city will collect water samples once service is restored and will notify residents when the boil advisory will be lifted.
The city has provided public water for more than 100 years and currently experiences, on average, 3 waterline breaks per week, when comparable size cities average 30-per-year.
