By Kate Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
Crews are about halfway done installing 30 miles of pipes that will one day carry water diverted from the Rio Grande to Albuquerque faucets, according to San Juan Chama Drinking Water Project manager John Stomp.
The $375 million project is expected to supply 70 percent of Albuquerque's drinking water, giving the city's aquifer a much-needed break.
It included the construction of an adjustable dam on the west side of the river at Alameda. City officials have said that without the dam, Albuquerque's clean underground supply water would be depleted in 25 years.
Stomp said two new construction projects will begin in July— one at Atrisco and Saint Josephs on the West Side and one at Alameda and the river.
At the Alameda site, crews will begin building a raw water pump station, Stomp said. Eventually, water will be pumped from the river to the pump station to a water treatment plant and finally to reservoirs on the West and East sides.
The final stage of the pumping process will require pipelines throughout the city, according to Stomp.
Also in July, crews will begin installing 9,000 feet of pipe from the intersection of Atrisco and Saint Joseph's to the intersection of Unser and Montaño. Stomp said that project should be completed by February 2007.
Stomp warned it might disrupt traffic.
"Sometimes I think it's a huge inconvenience," he said. "But in the big picture it's a project that has to be done if we're going to have water in the future in Albuquerque."
Stomp said another messy piece of construction— at Paseo del Norte and Rio Grande Boulevard— is almost completed. In February crews hit a snag when they came across a utility line, causing problems with road stability. That problem is fixed, Stomp said.
"Certainly the road is not going to collapse," he said.
In the next two to three weeks crews will finish cleaning up and landscaping the area, he said.
A construction worker at the site Thursday said 700 trees would be planted as soon as the pipes are covered up.
"The whole idea is to make it as nice as we can," said John Brown, corporate safety manager for Bradbury Stamm, the company contracted to complete the construction.
He said his crew would move east on Paseo once they had finished up at Rio Grande.
According to Stomp, construction of the pipeline along Paseo is coming along. He said crews are now extending the piping along that road from Rio Grande to Edith Boulevard.
"All the pipelines will be done by this time next year, which is good because they're the ones that are causing the traffic disruption and inconveniencing people," Stomp said.
He said Albuquerque should be drinking river water by March 2008.
"People are going to get a direct benefit as soon as it comes on," he said.
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