MARION, OH (MARION COUNTY NOW) – Aqua Ohio is scheduled to start a massive water line replacement project in January in the city of Marion.

According to company officials, more than a mile of water main located along Mount Vernon Avenue will be replaced at a cost of about $3,163,860.

“This is a really large project that will continue into the summer. We’ll keep the public and area drivers informed about our progress with regular announcements,” said Aqua Ohio’s Area Manager Scott Ballenger. “This project will double the size of the pipe that supplies service to our customers in eastern Marion County.”

Signage announcing the project with information about traffic impacts were installed along Mount Vernon Avenue the week of Dec. 18. Construction will start at the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and Church Street and end at Forest Lawn Boulevard. Aqua officials said they’ve broken the project into four separate phases in order to minimize traffic impacts for local motorists.

Aqua Ohio described the scope of the entire project in a press release it recently issued:

  • Replacing 5,900 linear feet of 120-year-old, six-inch cast iron water main with 12-inch ductile iron pipe along Mount Vernon Avenue from Church Street to Forest Lawn Boulevard.
  • Connecting 71 customers to the main with new service lines for the company-owned portion of the service and informing customers if the service line they own is lead and should be replaced.
  • Increasing the number of fire hydrants in the area from 12 to 15 to improve fire protection and the number of valves from 20 to 44 to help isolate disruptions during future repairs or maintenance.
  • Initiating construction the first week of January and taking approximately six months.

Phase One of the project, which begins in January 2024, includes the following:

  • Replacing the water main between Church Street to Bradford Street.
  • Connecting 14 customers to the main.
  • Installing three fire hydrants and six new valves.
  • This phase of the project will begin the first week of January and take approximately five weeks to complete, weather permitting.

During Phase One of the project, westbound traffic will be maintained, but lane closures and parking restrictions will be necessary in active construction areas.

Aqua officials said that eastbound traffic will be detoured down East Church Street to Sargent Street to East Center Street to U.S. 23. Lawn restorations will be completed in the fall of 2024.

Water service will be maintained throughout construction. However, customers receiving new service lines will experience short-term interruptions while their services are connected to the new main near the end of the project. Those customers will be notified by Aqua in advance of the planned interruptions.

Aqua selected Underground Utilities Inc. of Monroeville, Ohio, to conduct the project. In addition to this $3.1 million project, Ballenger said the company expects to spend more than $65 million across Aqua’s 40 Ohio systems in 2024, approximately $10 million of that will be invested in the Marion area.

Aqua Ohio is the state’s largest investor-owned drinking water and wastewater utility and serves about 500,000 residents in 19 counties. Visit AquaAmerica.com for more information, or follow Aqua on Facebook at facebook.com/MyAquaAmerica and on X (Twitter) at @MyAquaAmerica.