News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The City of Cookeville added a $62,000 project to the Willow Avenue water and sewer line replacements.
The city found a defective line while trying to connect the new Holiday Inn to the water grid. Cookeville Water and Sewer Director Ronnie Kelly said the project is too big for city workers to complete.
“When it gets 18 to 20 feet deep, we usually bring in an outside contractor with a Tracko and steel boxes just for excavation purposes,” Kelly said.
Kelly said the contractor must lift an electric pole out of the ground while repairing the line. Madewell Construction will begin repairing the line in late July.
“It is between Hardee’s and Waffle House,” Kelly said. “It is a little bigger than what we are set up to to do, so we talked to the contractor and negotiated a price with him.”
Madewell Construction will repair the city’s portion of the line then the contractor working on the Holiday Inn will connect to the water line. Kelly said with Madewell already contracted for the Willow Avenue utility work and the defective line being so close, adding a change order made sense.
Kelly said both contractors for the sewer and water lines have made great progress with the whole project.
“We appreciate the public’s patience for all the work done out there,” Kelly said. “From our perspective, we think it has gone very well, and the contractors have done a good job.”
The repairs and replacements of the sewer and water lines are in preparation for TDOT’s repaving project stretching from West Jackson Street to south of I-40 in August.
