Water transmission line work along Fairview to include bike path

Utility work along the east side of Fairview Drive includes an access road that will double as a bike path for Carson City, officials said.

The Public Works Department's Water Utility Manager Tom Guinn said that the work along Fairview is part of the north-south water transmission line, which will eventually deliver water from Minden in Douglas County to Carson City and Lyon County.

Carson City owns 2,000 acre feet of high-quality water rights in Minden, and it purchased another 1,250 acre feet from Minden.

Because of new federal drinking water standards, Carson City was faced with building new and more costly treatment plants to remove naturally occurring arsenic and uranium from its drinking water.

The water transmission line will allow the city to bring cleaner water from the Carson Valley to its existing facilities where it will be blended with the city's water to meet the federally mandated drinking water quality standards for its customers.

"This project saves Carson City a lot of money over building a treatment plant," Guinn said. "It's a two-fer because it solves our water quality problems and gives us more water, so we're getting quality and quantity."

Work started in February 2010 on Phase 1 of the pipeline, which extended west along Hells Bells Road and cut through vacant property to Fairview Drive. Another leg extended north along Fairview Drive from the roundabout at East Fifth Street to Butti Way where it jogs west along Butti to Airport Road.

The $7 million Phase 2, from the Fifth Street roundabout south to the county line, started up a few weeks ago and will include water lines as well as some sewer lines along portions of the project where residents now are on septic systems, he said.

Work crews are scheduled to be out of residential areas by Nov. 1, and Phase 2 is expected to be completed by March 2012.

According to the city's transportation division, the ongoing work will result in one-lane traffic with flagger controls from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays for the following roads:

• South Edmonds Drive between Fairview Drive and South Lompa Lane

• Damon Road between Tucker Court and South Edmonds Drive

• South Lompa Lane south of Edmonds Drive

• Conte Drive from Valley View Drive to Snyder Avenue

• Conte Drive from Damon Road to Sinbad Street

Phase 3, the east-west leg of the massive water project, will run west in a nearly direct line from the Butti Way and Airport Road intersection up to the Quill Treatment Plant near the top of Kings Canyon. It is scheduled for completion in November 2012.

Sewer rates went up about 14 percent in June, and water rates jumped about 5 percent. The sewer increase will go toward equipment upgrades, sewer main extensions and repairs, and freeway utility relocations. The water rate hike will fund equipment upgrades, land acquisition and freeway utility upgrades.