Single mom Jennifer Johnston now sees a different scene outside her home off 98th street and Orlando Avenue. And for the first time in weeks, she no longer hears thunderous machinery.
"It's annoying, very annoying. One day you lift your garage door up and they will be out there, but the next day they might not," she said. "Overall I love living here. This is a great neighborhood. I love my neighbors, but the construction has been non-stop since I have moved in. They definitely have ripped it up and repaved it a number of times, three or four, I have lost count."
It's all part of the Lake Alan Henry water project. The goal is to get the water flowing through the 65-mile pipeline to the city and to our faucets by later this year.
City Operating Officer Marsha Reed said it's a multiple phase project.
"Once we get it to the treatment plant, then we have to distribute that through the city and distribution system," she said. "This pipeline connects to three pump stations to the treatment plant, where we can push water through the treatment plant into the city and the citizens."
A major project like the pipeline can bring along speed bumps.
"The patch was left," Reed said. "Even though it was trafficable and passable, it had not been repaired as far as the asphalt goes."
Johnston said, "I am thankful they are doing it and glad they are hard workers. I just want it to be done."
City Engineer Wood Franklin said this is a minor speed bump for the project.
"It is a small portion of this project," he said. "If we didn't fix it now, then we would have to come back and fix it with city crews and city money at a later date."
The contractors, who didn't want to go on camera, will pay the bill for the repaving. The current phase of the project is expected to be finished in March or April. The entire Lake Alan Henry pipeline project is expected to be completed by June.
