County Board Invests in Water Main Backup in Donaldson Run

(Updated at 9:25 p.m.) Arlington, Virginia is hoping to avoid the infrastructure pitfalls in Arlington, Texas — and other parts of the Lone Star State.

At Saturday’s County Board meeting, the Board approved a 24 inch water main project stretching from Lorcom Lane to 25th Street N. in the Donaldson Run neighborhood. The Board authorized $3.1 million for the project, with $2.6 million as the project cost and just over a half-million dollars in contingency funding.

According to the project summary:

This contract is for the construction of 24-inch water transmission main in the right-of-way of North Taylor Street, Vacation Lane, North Vermont and North Vernon streets between Lorcom Lane and 25th Street North. This contract also includes installation of a new 8- inch water main to replace existing 6-inch water main along North Vernon Street between 25th Street North and North Vermont Street. The proposed water main will increase required system redundancy and transmission capacity.

The water main replacement is called Gravity One Phase II, a follow up on a water infrastructure project started in 2017. The new water main will serve as a backup to the existing 30-inch main from 1957 that feeds into nearby storage tanks and a pump station, allowing the county to move forward with a full assessment of the state of that pipe and perform maintenance.

“The project is expected to begin in April 2021,” the project website says. “The anticipated completion time is spring 2023.

“The contractor will limit noise-generating work to the hours of 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” the website adds. “No weekend work is anticipated. Other tasks may be addressed during the hours immediately before and after that window. There may be water impacts to some customers throughout the project. Advance notice will be given to residents prior to any planned water shut offs.”

County Board chair Matt de Ferranti said the new pipe will hopefully help prevent future water main breaks and provide better water reliability.

“We hear from so many in the community that we must take care of infrastructure,” said de Ferranti. “There was a water main break at Chain Bridge. This was a continued priority before that and we are investing again in a contract of a little over $3 million for a water line transition main that will be a backup to help protect reliability, which we’ve seen just this week is an unthought of but critical item as we look at those in Texas without water.”