The Rivanna Rambler

August 7, 2008

 

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This show originally aired in August 7, 2008 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net

There are markings on the pavement in front of my house on Oxford Road. Day glow green circles, yellow dots and dashes like a Morse-code message from the underground. Red and green marks, too. Up the dense periwinkle that hugs the slope between the curb and our lawn are bright blue lines sprayed 2 inches wide ending at the round cast iron water-meter. If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was some new kids’ game made permanent with the upgrade from chalk to spray paint.

But I do know better, because for last couple of months the street in front of my house has been busy with special equipment from the City and its contractors who first and foremost must mind these marks of the Virginia Underground Utility Code. As I work at my desk inside, I’ve come recognize the sounds of dump trucks, and graders — the clang of the backhoe bucket as it hits the pavement, the vibratory call of the jack-hammer. Oxford Road is being torn up and redone … and it’s making me think about how much lies beneath the roadway that I normally think of as simple conveyance for people and cars.

We’ve all heard or seen the effects “aging infrastructure” and how many facilities – from bridges to roads, sewers systems and reservoirs – are facing costly upgrades and maintenance that has been neglected. The latest round of discussion about area drinking water has been driven in part by the desire to see that the function of the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir as storage for our drinking water – is not lost to the siltation that has been as steady as the loss of trees and farmland to development upstream. Less evident, because it is mostly out of sight, is the state of our public utilities: that vast network of the water and sewer mains, pump stations, conduit and piping for gas, telephone, cable, and electricity.

But tending to much of this infrastructure is the job of the City of Charlottesville’s Utilities division, which has been working to keep pace with the loss of water to leaks and corrosion. The position created several years ago of Water Conservation Specialist is held now by Jennifer Watson. Though part of her job is to build awareness and promote public education, she’s also busy planning and managing the system-wide repairs and upgrades so that little water is lost as it is conveyed to customers.

Somehow, Oxford Road made it to the top of the work list, and it has been under siege since early spring. Jennifer explained to me that the schedule is based on whether there’s been a repeated need for repairs in a given area and if existing water lines are the galvanized steel that are prone to longitudinal cracks and leaking. Sewer lines are also being replaced. In March, the Oxford Road sewer line was upgraded using a cure-in-place process that lined the existing pipes with a resin-hardened synthetic fabric.

The repairs and upgrades are not cheap. Though the City usually spends about $3 million a year on water and sewer improvements, earlier this year it estimated that it will cost about $19 million dollars fort just water line repairs and upgrades over the next five years and half again as much to do the same for the city’s share of sewer infrastructure. Watson estimates that our street alone will cost on the order of $360,000 to replace the main water line with a ductile iron pipe, to install additional fire hydrants at the required 600-foot intervals, and to replace and tie in about 35 lateral lines with copper for that final leg between water main and meter for each house.

When they’re done, sometime later this month, the City will tidy up the asphalt patchwork that snakes raggedly down the street like a wound stitched up from side to side. They’ll cut away the patches and the rest of the surface, including those colored markings – the hieroglyphics that show where you can and cannot dig. I suppose if you’re in the business you probably come to know these symbols for what they really are: representations of the time and dollars it takes to keep the water and wastes flowing in the right directions beneath our city streets.