MORGANTOWN – Morgantown Utility Board Communications Director Chris Dale the final component of MUB’s Chaplin Hill water system upgrade project is in place.
It was no small feat.
Contractor Snider & Son has spent the last few months boring and reaming a hole beneath the Monongahela River between Long Street on the Westover side and lower Walnut Street in Morgantown in order to pull through a 26-inch high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe to replace the existing water line connected to the Joseph C. Bartolo Memorial Bridge, more commonly known as the Westover Bridge.
“The water line under the Mon River is now in place. The remaining work includes tying into the existing MUB water system on both sides and restoration of the drill pit and other work areas,” Dale said “It is anticipated that this work will be completed by the end of February, with final pavement restoration occurring in the spring once the weather warms and asphalt plants open.”
MUB approved a contract for just over $1.9 million with Snider & Son for the work in the summer of 2024 as one of several upgrades tied to a multifaceted project to improve capacity in the rapidly-developing area along Chaplin Hill Road.
The drilling work was not without obstacles, or, as MUB General Manager Mike McNulty explained in October, “They’ve had some challenges.”
Two change orders would be approved by MUB in the second half of 2025 as the hole drilled beneath the river would ultimately need to be both deeper and wider than initially anticipated.
MUB approved a $399,549 change order in July to drop the excavation down to 38 feet. Last month, an additional $140,840 was approved after McNulty explained the borehole, which had previously been reamed to 30 inches, would be expanded further.
“The contractor was making some really great progress, as I reported in the last meeting, and then he encountered a problem. A clevis broke as he was pulling the line through and that ended up requiring him to pull the entire line back out of the hole they drilled,” McNulty said. “And now we’ve gotten approval from the railroad to have a larger ream of 36 inches, which we did not have before.”
In addition to the new line beneath the river, the Chaplin Hill water system upgrades include a new booster station, a new water storage tank and more than 9,000 feet of 12-inch water line.
Improvements to both the water and sewer infrastructure in the WestRidge and Chaplin Hill area are being funded through an agreement between MUB, the county and WestRidge in which each pledged just over $3.6 million to be added to $3 million from the West Virginia Water Development Authority.
With the exception of the directionally-drilled water line beneath the river, all other components of both the water and sewer projects are substantially complete.
“We’re very excited to get that line into serve and the old line off the Westover Bridge,” McNulty previously said of the work.
