Cookeville City Council will consider awarding a bid for some $940,000 to do water line improvements along Mine Lick Creek Road.
Water and Sewer Department Director Barry Turner told City Council during Monday’s work session that the current water line is a four-inch asbestos cement line. The city purchased the line from the Double Springs Utility District. Turner said the asbestos is not exposed to the water inside but the line is too small to support fire hydrants.
“That line’s more subject to break, plus we don’t have records of how everything was put in and where it is,” Turner said. “So there may be some valves, which we have discovered some valves off on that line, so with a new line we’ll know what we have.”
Turner said the new pipes included in the bid are much more dependable twelve-inch lines. Turner said the improvements would allow the area to be subdivided more easily in the future.
“If somebody wanted to subdivide they would have that plus, like I said, get adequate fire protection,” Turner said. “There are some hydrants there now, but they don’t have regular fire flows on them so that’ll take care of that.”
Turner said the city’s customers along Mine Lick Creek Road should not notice a difference in their water services during the work or even after the project is completed. Turner said the only water outage planned in the project is a period of a couple hours per house as each one is transferred from the old water line to the new one.
“The only other reason there would be an outage is if they accidentally break a line while they’re working,” Turner said.
Turner said the bid came in some $100,000 under his department’s estimate. If approved, the new line would run along Mine Lick Creek Road from Bush Road to the far end of Park West Drive.
“We’re planning on going all the way up eventually,” Turner said. “But because we’re looking about getting some easements on the east, we didn’t include that in this.”
City council will consider the item during its Thursday meeting.
