Hard

Johnson

A leaky valve at the intersection of Main and 18th streets didn't put additional stress on the city of Lewiston's already strained water infrastructure.

The problem near Levee Bypass first surfaced June 3 in a valve installed in the 1930s and city crews observed not much water was escaping, said City of Lewiston Public Works Director Dustin Johnson.

They monitored the situation and hoped it wouldn't deteriorate more because it was scheduled to be replaced in a couple of weeks in a $1.16 million upgrade of a section of a Main Street water pipe, he said.

Instead it worsened. Large puddles of water formed that attracted the attention of a number of community residents.

When that happened, the city went ahead and made the repair within the last week, even though the actual volume of water that was released from the pipe wasn't that great, Johnson said.

Such problems are common this time of year when heat forces soil, asphalt and concrete to expand, he said.

Since the end of May, the city has had four other similar issues. They were at 15th and G streets, 10th Avenue and Third Street, Ninth Avenue and 11th Street and on Snake River Avenue.

"Our water crew is stressed to the max," Johnson said.

The portions of the city's water system constrained by High Reservoir being offline were not affected by the problem.

The area around Eighteenth and Main streets is not under irrigation restrictions because it gets its water from a well not directly tied into the portion of the system served by High Reservoir, Johnson said.

The city had to disconnect High Reservoir, one of the city's largest, from the rest of its system in January after it ruptured for reasons still under investigation.

The reservoir being out of commission prompted the city to impose irrigation limitations since a large share of the community's water use involves watering lawns, parks and sports facilities.

The reservoir is being repaired by fixing the section of wall that failed, installing a liner, removing an old roof and replacing it with a floating cover in a project expected to be done by the end of July.

Once the 4.5 million gallon reservoir is back online in late July or early August based on what's known at this time, the city anticipates lifting restrictions imposed on most city water customers generally banning automated irrigation.

As the city continues repairing High Reservoir, the Main Street is nearing its conclusion and is anticipated to be done by the end of this month.

A 12-inch steel pipe for domestic water that is more than 100 years old is being replaced with an iron one that has a diameter of 16 inches, between Ninth Street and a culdesac in Locomotive Park on Main Street.

Money from the American Rescue Plan Act is covering it.

Williams may be contacted at [email protected] or (208) 848-2261.

Johnson

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