MADISON – After a lengthy time for the required work, construction upgrades on water lines on Highland Drive are nearing completion.

“The project on Highland Drive is primarily a water main replacement project. Over the past several years, we have had quite a few main breaks on Highland Drive, which were also increasing in frequency,” Jason Leggett. Leggett, who hold professional engineer credentials, works with Madison Utilities and has been managing the project.

“We are down to only a handful of remaining items on their list,” Leggett said. During the last week of December 2021, the items that remain on the work schedule are a few repairs to lawns, a couple of adjustments to valve boxes and an updated final survey.

Because of substantial repairs, “we undertook this project to replace all the water infrastructure along the street, including pipes, service tubing, valves, hydrants (and other water-line components). The water infrastructure work was contracted to Norris Brothers Contracting, and this work is substantially complete,” Leggett said.

“The contractor has said they are hiring a landscaping contractor to take care of the yards, but we haven’t seen them yet,” Leggett said on Jan. 5.

“We have a small punch list with a few clean up items left for the contractor to take care of, and we are working with the contractor to get those completed, hopefully (by mid-January),” Leggett said. “Most of the remaining items involve yard work, which has been hampered by recent weather.”

According to Leggett, the Highland Drive project has accomplished several goals:

* Upgrade of quality of water infrastructure materials.

* Extension of useful life of water infrastructure.

* Drastic reduction in disruption of water service due to leaks and other failures.

Madison Utilities coordinated the work with the City of Madison Engineering Department, which is managing the paving of the roadway.