Weirton Water Board continues planning for improvement projects
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WEIRTON - The Weirton Area Water Board continues to oversee several ongoing improvement projects for the water system, including beginning design work on a project to update much of the distribution system in the city’s downtown.
Jesse Alden, project manager for Thrasher Engineering, explained during Thursday’s board meeting, he has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the early stages of design and environmental work for the Walnut Street project.
"That will replace the 12-inch line that feeds the Lee Avenue tank with an 18-inch line," Alden said. "That will solve multiple problems."
The project will address one of the major issues which contributed to the mass water outages in late 2024 and early 2025, where a large break on Walnut Street resulted in much of the city’s downtown losing water service for an extended amount of time.
Other breaks in the line have occurred both before and since.
Board member Joe Paolo reminded members this particular project is funded through $1 million in Congressionally Directed Spending and $3,340,000 from the West Virginia Water Development Authority.
"It’s fully funded through grants, so our users won’t see any rate increases," Paolo said. "That’s an important point."
In addition, Alden reported the cast iron and galvanized line replacement project received approval and funding recommendations from the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council in early September, clearing the way for the Water Board to begin seeking approximately $39 million in funding to replace lines in an area referred to in documents as "Downtown North."
Alden explained the area for the project includes from Main Street to Elm Street, Mildren Avenue to Virginia Avenue with all cast iron and small-diameter galvanized lines in the project area replaced. Alden said this will affect 2,850 water customers, who would then be served by completely new water lines.
The Weirton Area Water Board has proposed funding the project with a $10 million Congressionally Directed Spending grant, an $18.97 million loan through the Water Infrastructure Financing Innovation Act, a $500,000 loan from the IJDC, a $4.25 million loan from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Drinking Water Treatment Revolving Fund, a $500,000 Green Project Grant from the DWTRF for energy savings and an additional $500,000 Green Project Grant for water savings.
"We’ve done a lot, but there is a lot to do to get to completion," Alden said.
In the meantime, Triton Construction continues on the project to expand the capacity of the water treatment plant to 8 million gallons per day.
Alden noted the project stands at 96.1 percent of completion, based on the contract, and has a substantial completion date of Nov. 21, with a final payment expected by Dec. 23.
The project also still has $294,180.93 in contingency funds available.
(Howell can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com)