Oak Street Project: Road Reopens for Summer

“The heat goes up, water consumption goes up,” said Louisville Water Inspector Dennis Pike. “Over the summer, more water’s consumed. (People are) Watering yards, pools, just washing cars more.”

Keeping the customers in mind as we head into peak season for water usage, Louisville Water paused construction to replace a 130-year-old water main in Old Louisville for a “summer break”. Crews reopened Oak Street between Brook and Floyd streets on Friday, May 9.

The “Oak Street Project” began in July 2024 on Dumesnil Street near South 10^th Street. The first phase moved at a faster pace because that part of the project involved sliplining, where you essentially slide a new pipe inside an existing pipe.

“It went very well, but Phase 2 is a different animal. We’re looking at dig and replace.” Meyer explained, “It’s going to be a little bit slower, it’s going to be more cumbersome. We have to kind of dig with ‘kid gloves’ because of all the utilities (service lines).”

Dig and replace is exactly what it sounds like- workers dig, remove the old pipe, and install the new pipe while carefully avoiding other utility lines. While the crew navigated through some of those challenges, Pike added the weather also caused delays. A winter storm with arctic temperatures, snow, and ice preceded long periods of rain.

Despite those bumps in the road, the crew made it just past Brook Street. Before work wrapped up for the summer, Pike thoroughly flushed the pipe to ensure only high-quality Louisville Pure Tap® is flowing.

“I had the existing (water) main off all the way from Hepburn and Baxter; it’s been off for a period of four or five months. For quality assurance, I have to flush all of that (stagnant) water out,” Pike said.

Once our water quality lab confirmed water samples met Environmental Protection Agency standards, Pike had the green light for the crew to remove their equipment and reopen traffic.

All paving work on Oak Street between 7^th and Floyd streets is scheduled to finish by the end of May. We plan to resume the project in late September/early October.

“We’re going to pick back up on Oak Street just west of Floyd Street and then proceed east under I-65,” shared Louisville Water Project Engineer Michael Meyer.

Pike assures customers, “We’re not doing it to interrupt anybody’s daily life, we’re doing it to make sure they have good water for the future.”

This video shows construction during Phase 1.