A three block section of the water main that runs along East 9th Street in Junction City will be replaced.
It was a rough winter for the water main as city crews responded to and fixed five breaks along it just in the three month period 
between January and March.
During Tuesday night’s city commission meeting the commission approved a project that will replace the section of the water main between Washington Street and Price Street.
“It’s plus or minus about 1,800 to 2,000 feet in length,” explained Greg McCaffery, Municipal Services Director. “There will be some connections that we will have to make at both Washington and at Price. The valves that are along that segment, the hydrants, we will have to replace those.”
That section of pipe does serve the Geary County Sheriff’s Department, Junction City Police Department and the Geary County Office Building.
McCaffery explained that the pipe is roughly 50 years old which is not un-common considering roughly two thirds of the city’s approximate 168 miles of water mains is in that age range.
“We have roughly 168 miles of water main in the city. Approximately 90 miles of those mains are pre 2002 and many of those are significantly older than that.”
The current water main is a four inch pipe and would be replaced with an eight inch pipe.
McCaffery also said that he hopes to utilize city staff when it comes to the engineer design.
“Right now we have an engineering technician that’s looking at retiring at the end of April. We’re going to be bringing on a new individual to fill his place. We have an assistant city engineer that currently has his fundamentals of engineering degree. So what he needs to start doing is, if the time allows, we need to start getting him into some real design work, so ultimately when he qualifies to write his professional engineering exam he has that in hand.”
Kaw Valley Engineering will still be hired to assist with the design work.
The total cost of the project is estimated at approximately $140,000, with a completion date for the end of May.