Waterlines Being Buried for New Smith Mountain Lake Water Treatment Facility

Waterlines Being Buried for New Smith Mountain Lake Water Treatment Facility

April 3, 2016

3/4/2016

Moneta, VA (March 4, 2016) – Blue pipe is popping up along 122 in Bedford County as the Bedford Regional Water Authority’s Smith Mountain Lake Water Treatment Facility and waterline project progresses.

This new pipeline will run along 122 and part of 460 and be served by the new Smith Mountain Lake Water Treatment Facility on Radford Church Road. This will effectively allow the Bedford Regional Water Authority to use water from the Smith Mountain Lake Facility for not only lake residents, but also customers in the Bedford and Forest service areas as needed.

Construction crews will begin steadily laying pipeline along Route 122 in March. The waterlines are first laid out on the ground where construction crews will then bury the 18-inch pipes. Most of the pipe is being installed in easements or areas of the right-of-way that are far enough off the road that traffic should not affected. However, in some places along Route 122, the waterline may require installation closer to the roadway necessitating lane closures; drivers may experience some traffic delays between 8am and 5pm Monday through Friday in these locations. Crews are diligently working to ensure drivers are impacted as little as possible.

While construction is taking place along Route 122, it will also be taking place along Route 460 between Goode Road and the Town of Bedford; the contractor has multiple crews that will be working simultaneously to ensure that all of the pipe construction is completed by the end December in 2016.
Construction on the water treatment facility and water intake facility are also underway, with work on the building foundations currently taking place. Construction of the plant and intake facilities are expected to be completed in the first few months of 2017.

The facility is being constructed through progressive design/build agreement with Black & Veatch and Overland Contracting, Inc., with CHA Consulting serving as a local design/build representative for the project.

The Regional Long Range Water Supply Plan, completed in 2010 in conjunction with the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission, recommended expanding the treatment and distribution of drinking water from Smith Mountain Lake to meet the growing water needs within the region by 2060. This new facility will allow for the drinking water needs of current and future customers to be met. To this end, the Bedford Regional Water Authority and the Western Virginia Water Authority signed an agreement May 7, 2014 to work together to develop these facilities and implement this recommendation.

Under the partnership concept, the two water authorities will equally share the ownership and the operation of the new Smith Mountain Lake Water Treatment Plant. Initial plans for the new facility, anticipated to be operational by the end of December 2016, are to construct a 3-million gallon per day treatment facility that could be expanded to 6-million gallons per day within the framework of the new building. The existing facility, owned by BRWA, is a 1-million gallon per day facility of which 400,000-gallons per day are allocated to the Western Virginia Water Authority.