WHITING — Anyone who’s driven through Whiting on Route 30 recently couldn’t have helped but notice something happening in the ditches beside the road.
The Whiting Water Corp. is replacing its main water line, which runs beside the road from the firehouse, south along Route 30 for around 4,400 feet. The work began in mid-September, and company operator Bob Wadsworth estimates that work on the line will be done by the end of December.
The repairs come as a relief to the owners of the 23 residences and other buildings that the corporation serves — among them the school, the firehouse, the Whiting Country Store and the Whiting town office.
Whiting residents along Route 30 formed the corporation in the 1960s in order to consolidate their water needs, and have been using the same main water line since then. According to Wadsworth, the line was having chronic leaking problems and was badly in need of replacement.
The corporation had been trying to find the money to make the needed repairs for some time, and had made their needs known to the state.
“We were high on the list of small companies that needed help,” said Wadsworth.
So when the Agency of Natural Resources received economic stimulus money, it contacted the Whiting Water Corp. to offer $413,000 to cover the cost of the repairs.
Clemons Construction of Middlesex is doing the replacements to the system and also installing new storage tanks behind the firehouse. According to Wadsworth, the work is nearing completion.
“The main line is installed and it’s been tested,” he said Tuesday.
After the work is completed, the corporation will also be responsible for landscaping along Route 30, although due to the approaching winter that work will be held off until spring. The landscaping will replace beautification work that, due to miscommunication, state workers had done just a month before the water line project began.
Come spring, the company will reseed the roadside area.