LYNN — The Water and Sewer Commission will soon begin construction on a more than two-mile water main replacement from Broadway to Lynnfield Street that is expected to improve water pressure throughout the area.
Using roughly $3 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding, the commission will replace the 100-year-old six-inch water main that stretches from Broadway over to the section of Lynnfield Street from Verdmont Avenue to Winslow Way.
Lynn Water and Sewer Commission Executive Director Daniel O’Neill said workers had already begun surveying the roadways and are expected to start working in the summer. He said replacing the more than a century-old pipe with a wider main will improve water flow and pressure in the vicinity.
“We applied to upgrade the water mains based on low pressure and poor flow, [and] size of the mains,” O’Neill said. “We’re going to be replacing a hundred-year-old six-inch water main with a brand new eight-inch water main — new [house] services up to the property line, new hydrants, new faucets, new roadways, new pavements, everything.”
O’Neill added that the water main replacement would improve water flow to fire hydrants, ensuring the Fire Department has ample water flow in the event of an emergency.
When the commission first applied for the funds in August, O’Neill said the current main had weathered tuberculation and mineral deposits over the years, which negatively impacted its performance.
In April last year, a four-alarm fire destroyed a three-family home at 30 Broadway, displacing 11 residents. Firefighters were starting to make progress knocking down the fire when they lost water pressure from the hydrant.
Former Fire Chief Stephen Archer said the effort was hindered further when firefighters also lost water pressure from a second hydrant.
“We found out we had water-pressure (issues) throughout the area … throughout the incident,” Archer said last year. “We were never able to make a good, decisive interior attack.”
In an interview Tuesday, District Fire Chief Joseph Zukas said the Fire Department is grateful to the Water and Sewer Commission for taking steps to improve fire flow off of Broadway and Lynnfield Street.
“We want to thank Lynn Water and Sewer for identifying the problem and fixing it,” Zukas said. “It’s definitely going to improve our operations in that area … a lot of the infrastructure in that area is old, so it’s good that they’re upgrading it.”
