"We have got aging infrastructure throughout our system downtown. It's one of the oldest parts of our system. This is to replace about 4,000 feet of old lines and help keep our customers in water," Big Spring City Manager, Todd Darden, said.
The City of Big Spring approved a $1 million project to replace the pipelines on 3rd and 4th Street, from Gregg Street to Owens.
They'll be laying down 4,000 feet of pipeline to hopefully prevent future water main breaks.
"We average years of 250 main breaks in a year. We have seen years as high as 400. Last year, was one of high numbers but it happened in the summer time. A lot of that was malfunction of pumps and mechanical problems, some weather related," Darden said.
That's what they are trying to prevent more main breaks with the extreme weather.
"In these last 10 days, if you look back from November 30, we had 13 main breaks. It's not a high number, we've seen higher numbers," Darden said.
The best part for the city is that the Texas Department of Transportation will be coming right behind them to replace the roads.
This helped keep the cost low to about $720,000 .
"Part about why this job is cheaper is the amount of pipe that we are replacing. If we had to go back and do patching of the streets, sides and gutters, it be more. That's not being taken into the cost because TXDOT will be behind us putting new stuff in," Darden said.
The plan is for White Water Construction to begin the project on December 12.
"We're excited about the project, we're looking forward to getting it underway. Good safe traveling in the Downtown area and new water lines," Darden said.
They city hopes to complete the project by April or May of 2012.
