Church Street Waterline Project Road Closures: What You Need To Know

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The main purpose of this project is to improve the water capacity, reliability, and pressure for businesses and residents currently served along approximately 6100 feet of downtown water pipeline. In addition, it adds seven fire hydrants along Church Street and Red House Road.

If you are a Town of Appomattox business owner facing Church or Main Street, you may have been wondering how soon and how much impact the Church Street Waterline project might have on you in the coming months.  

This article addresses those issues; it will be updated regularly with the most current information related to construction as the project progress.

We would like to thank everyone for their patience and attention to the safety of workers, pedestrians, and other drivers along the construction route.

Thus far we have experienced no accidents or injuries on the project, and everyone’s goal is 100% completion with zero accidents/injuries. We, our contractors, and their subcontractors are doing everything possible to improve safety and minimize the impact on businesses and residents.  

Waterline Key Points:

1. All plans are subject to weather, damage, and design changes in the field if required.
2. All traffic patterns/signage and placements are controlled by VDOT.
3. All work related to the railroad crossing is subject to Norfolk and Southern’s  safety and scheduling requirements.
    
4. We expect the project to run 9-11 months.
    
5. Currently we expect to reach Main Street in late Spring or early summer.
    
6. About 100 feet of the pipeline will have to be installed using underground boring techniques.  This is the section of Church Street that crosses the RR tracks. Boring will begin about 50 feet from each side of the tracks.  Please note that this is the most complex section of the entire project and the portion for which we have least control of the schedule.  For safety’s sake, Norfolk and Southern has very strict requirements and a very demanding delivery schedule they must work around when any construction project impacts their train routes.
7. Main Street facing businesses will see the least construction impacts, but there will be some differences among Main Street facing businesses.  
   
   1. The earliest expected timeframe for any Main Street business is early summer 2024.
       
   2. Businesses closest to Church Street are expected to experience the least number of service interruptions.
       
   3. We will provide a detailed schedule as we get closer to April 2024
       
   4. Main street is not scheduled for road closures.
       
8. Church Street facing business and residents:
   1. Short sections of Church Street will be reduced to a single lane when necessary for safety.
   2. Once construction begins on the north side of the RR tracks on Church Street (side nearest train depot) single lane traffic conditions will be used as necessary. 
   3. On occasion, the traffic on Church between the RR tracks and Harrell Street will be one way (allowing only left turns off Main Street).
       
   4. Individual businesses and residents may expect one 1–4-hour service interruption but only when connecting their business/residence to the new water line.
   5. At least one point of vehicle access and exit will remain available during construction.
   6. Some driveways may be temporarily blocked during the construction day and enabled in the evenings using metal plate covers for access after 5PM access
   7. No boil orders are expected 
9. Project Organization, Scheduling and Sequence:
   1. The picture above shows the next five steps of the project:
      
      1. Step 1 Runs from Red House Road’s intersection with Church Street to Lee-Grant Intersection (1100 feet)
      2. Step 2 Runs from intersection of Lee-Grant to boring pit on south side of RR tracks
          
      3. Step “X”, Runs across the Church Street RR tracks from the South side boring pit to the North side boring pit. (approximately 100′)
          
      4. Step 3 Step 3 North Side Bore Pit to Harrel Street (180 feet)
          
      5. Step 4 Step  Harrel Street  to Oakleigh  Street (320 feet)
          
      6. Step 5  Oakleigh Street to Confederate (320 feet)
          
   2. The pace of the project (how fast it goes) is primarily dependent on the ground, road traffic, and pipeline conditions found once digging begins.  
       
   3. The slowest progress so far was 20 feet/day along a street where it was necessary to continually pump water out of the construction area.
       
   4. More recently,  we are averaging about 100 feet of pipeline/day.
       
   5. Unfortunately most of the existing underground utilities were installed before highly accurate Geographic Information Systems (GIS ) and Global Positioning System (GPS) data were invented, so it is necessary to dig accurately and slowly along older street area