This is the time of year where water main breaks become more frequent in the city of Emporia, and Public Works Director Dean Grant recently spoke with KVOE to discuss some of the work going into city infrastructure to keep breaks at a minimum.
According to Grant, the city has been taking a strong “proactive” approach to upgrading infrastructure for that purpose in recent years. Grant says this approach by Emporia City Commissioners is a far cry from what he has experienced in other cities throughout his career.
Grant says this approach is a big help to his department as it allows them to replace certain lines before they become too worn out eventually leading to a significant break. Grant adds that water main breaks bring a large number of complications, other than the obvious, with them.
Grant explains that depending on the scale of the break, damages can also occur to city streets leading to more work needing to take place in the vicinity of the break causing a disruption to traffic and service being shutoff to customers for a long period of time.
Grant’s comments come as the city is in the process of beginning two significant water line projects on Payton Street as well as on Garfield, Ninth Avenue and Logan Street. Grant says an exact timeline for when those projects will begin and conclude is not available at the moment, however, they should be getting underway in “the next few months.”
