Salem Public Works Director Annette Sola says there will likely be a delay in the completion of the South Broadway waterline replacement project due to a shortage and delay in the delivery of copper pipe.
Sola says the city has enough pipe on hand to complete 16 service connections to the new line, but will have to wait for the shipment to complete the other 30 connections.
She reports the shortage will also delay the installation of a new sidewalk in the 100 block of South Broadway.
“It is just going to be dependent on all of this and then how fast they can test the line. So if this is delayed by three weeks, then getting sidewalks in will be delayed for three weeks. So everything will slow down, based on when that pipe comes in. I was hoping that sometime in August we would be ready to begin sidewalks but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens at this point.”
Until then, there is a rock sidewalk running from Salem City Hall to the Salem Theatre. Sola doesn’t want to start the sidewalk work before the line is done due to avoid having to dig up any of the new sidewalks if there is a problem with the new line.
