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Louisville Water Investing Millions of Dollars in New Infrastructure
Every year, Louisville Water Company invests millions of dollars in infrastructure. In fact, roughly half of the company’s capital budget is dedicated to building, repairing, and maintaining the systems that deliver drinking water. In early July, Louisville Water launched a multi-year project to rehabilitate a 130-year-old water main along Oak and Dumesnil streets. Construction work is currently underway on Dumesnil Street between South 9th and 12th streets. This area includes industrial and residential properties.
The project will improve the overall reliability of our water supply for the city and ensure the community continues to have high-quality Louisville Pure Tap® flowing from their faucets for the next century.
Louisville Water Senior Utilities Consultant Vince Guenthner said they identified this particular 48-inch main as a good one to replace because of its history of leaks and main breaks over the years. Guenthner says they’ll use an innovative method known as sliplining to rehab the water main. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same method Louisville Water used in 2019 for a main replacement project along Eastern Parkway.
“Sliplining is a process where we keep the existing water main in place and “slip” in a new water main inside the existing main. This process is less disruptive to the street and neighborhood and the result is a fully rehabbed main that is designed to last another 100 years,” Guenthner explained.
Louisville Water expects Phase 1 of the “Oak Street Project” to last approximately six months. The total rehabilitation project is estimated to cost around $8.5 million.
Keeping the community informed
Drivers can expect some lane closures and detours, but the road will remain open to
local access in the area of South 10th and Dumesnil in this first phase. Louisville Water’s goal is to minimize the disruption as much as possible and wants to keep businesses and neighbors in the loop as we navigate this project. LouisvilleWater.com/OakStreetProject provides an overview of the plan and it is also where we will post frequent updates for the community.
From the archives
We dug through our archives to share this historic photo of the water main back in the 1890s. It truly shows how much Louisville has grown and how Louisville Water has a long history of investing in infrastructure.
