Anyone driving into and out of downtown Dayton over the last few weeks has likely encountered street construction. Some travelers may find it confusing to navigate through the dozens of detours around the many infrastructure projects currently underway in the city.
The projects are part of a major infrastructure upgrade that started this summer and fall.
Among the construction snarling traffic across Dayton is a water-main replacement project along N. Jefferson St.
Crews there have excavated more than a mile and a half of roadway. From afar, a few of the intersections in the construction zone may look impassable until drivers are practically on top of the orange traffic cones set up to guide them through.
The $1,000,000-plus project is expected to be completed soon, says the Dayton Water Department Deputy Director Aaron Zonin.
“Downtown’s the little tougher to work in," he says, "because of all the utilities and congestion, but we schedule that into the construction schedule to ensure there's enough time given any delays. This project’s been moving along pretty good so we will be completed by the end of the year.”
Zonin says the N. Jefferson water lines were installed in the late 1800’s. So, the cast iron pipes carrying the city’s water supply have been working for 130 years or more.
They'll be replaced with new concrete-lined cast iron pipes that should last at least as long, he says.
In total, the city is spending more than $6,000,000 on seven ongoing water main projects this year.
