Jim Thorpe's 100-year-old water line replacement project all but complete

By JOSH CUSATIS jcusatis@tnonline.com
 
JOSH CUSATIS/TIMES NEWS A work crew with Linde Enterprises of Wilkes-Barre installs a water lateral along Broadway in Jim Thorpe on Tuesday morning. Two other crews were working along the street, however Tuesday afternoon saw the end of major construction on the project to replace the roughly one-mile water line which serves the borough's historic district.
After roughly six months, the major construction of the project to replace the roughly one-mile water line underneath West Broadway and Broadway has been completed.Jim Thorpe Borough Council member Jay Miller, who chairs the borough's water department, said on Tuesday afternoon that the previous, roughly 100-year-old water line has been taken off-line thus bringing an end to major construction by Linde Enterprises of Wilkes Barre."I'm glad it's done," Miller said. "It's been a very hard project with a lot of twists and turns. I'd like to thank the residents and business owners for hanging in there for the long haul. We've got a lot to be proud about."Although work along the street is now completed, there are still a couple of things left to be done, including the installation of a meter and other equipment at the water filtration plant on West Broadway near Flagstaff Road and the installation of several fire hydrants in the Heights section of the borough. Also, Linde will be patching any potholes left by the project before returning in the spring to resurface the street and repair any sidewalks that were damaged.Though there were times that it was difficult to notice any work was being done, as the project progressed, traffic in the borough's historic district along Route 209 was often heavily congested due to street closures and single-lane conditions. Adding to the problems was the unpredictable nature of the underground features along Broadway. Vaults, pipelines and tunnels carrying water which were not listed on maps were routinely found and had to be dealt with."There were a lot of problems with the traffic and parking and we found a lot of things that we didn't know about," Miller said. "We knew there were things under that street that we didn't know about, but not to the extent that we found."But complaints were nearly non-existent. Although there had been concern from business owners over a loss of business and residents over accessibility to their homes, disruption of water service and possible damage to their property as a result of the work prior to the start of the project, as exemplified through comments made at public meetings this past spring, those complaints died off once work began. At nearly every borough council meeting during the six months of the project, at least one resident or business owner from along Broadway would comment publicly that the Linde employees were courteous and helpful and that any disruptions were minimal and tolerable. At least one resident served iced tea to the work crews during the hot summer months.In the end, the project itself illustrated its own necessity, according to Miller."Well, we did prove that the old line was far beyond its life. By doing this, we've improved fire protection and domestic service and gotten a lot of the lead out of the system in all of the old service lines."With this project basically completed, concerns now turn to a similar project along North Street on the borough's east side. This project, to be conducted by Pioneer Construction Services Inc. of Sturgis, has been postponed until the spring, however it is possible that some preliminary work may be completed in January. Miller has said previously that this project should be smoother that the Broadway project since it is not expected that as many unknown features under the street will be discovered, there are other streets on which to divert traffic and parking is not as big an issue.The borough's third water project, the replacement of the Cherry Street water tank, being conducted by Welding Inc., is nearly completed as well. The tank has been constructed and roughly 80 percent of the tank has been painted. One day of good weather with temperatures above freezing is needed to complete the painting. Once this is done, the tank can be filled and put into use once the paint cures. It is hoped that this will be accomplished before the end of the year."Hopefully, we'll be able to get this done this weekend after the next snowstorm," Miller said.The funding for these three projects comes from a $6.3-million PennVEST loan, which the borough will pay off over the course of the next 30 years at 1 percent interest. To help with the cost of annual payments, the borough has dedicated $60,000 of its annual Community Development Block Grant funding, which the borough receives from the United States Office of Housing and Urban Development through Carbon County, to the debt service on this loan.