MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A multi-million dollar water and sewer infrastructure project that will support development in the southwestern end of Monongalia County is now a few finishing touches away from being complete.
Morgantown Utility Board General Manager Mike McNulty announced on Wednesday during the MUB board’s regular meeting on Tuesday that the final directional drill to install 950 feet of 26-inch HDPE waterline and 100 feet of 24-inch waterline under the Monongahela River began early that morning and is expected to be completed by the end of Wednesday. This will cap off just over $14 million of work that was completed by contractors with Snider and Sons LLC, Bear Contracting, Mid-Atlantic Storage Systems, and Anderson Excavating over the course of two years.
“We have just some punch list items that we’ve got to take care of, but the system is up and running,” said McNulty. “Everything is substantially completed, so we have just this punch list and maybe some paperwork to take care of.”
When the directional drill is complete, it will extend a water and sewer line that begins a connection starting in Westover that crosses the Monongahela River up to the Sheetz in Star City. The water line was extended through a drill underneath the river that would eventually end around Mylan Park with the support of booster station upgrades that were included as part of the project. For MUB officials who have worked on the projects for around half a decade, it’s considered infrastructure that will account for growth around the county for several years.
“There’s a water line that comes from Westover, about the Sheetz right there before you go across the bridge all the way to Mylan Park,” said MUB Assistant General Manager Rich Rodgers. “It’s water and sewer, and we’re doing the water line under the river, that is a 26-inch water line underneath the river.”
Rogers also reported that the new water and sewer infrastructure created as part of the Westridge/Chaplin Hill project will be used to support development in the areas between the University Town Center, WestRidge Business Park, and Mylan Park a few miles away. This in turn is expected to bring the capacity in the area to support large-scale events at Mylan Park, such as regional and statewide athletic tournaments and continued business development around WestRidge. Work that was openly endorsed by local officials during the planning process for MUB.
“It’s water and sewer upgrades for the west side of I-79,” said Rodgers. “So West Ridge and that development will have the opportunity to build out there as much as they want and it also increases the capacity at Mylon Park.”
While McNulty expressed appreciation for putting together a project that had close to three years of planning and two years of construction, he also mentioned that MUB will be moving forward with several other larger-scale projects that will either be ready for public use or near completion by the end of the year. During the meeting, MUB highlighted that work on the Evansdale Lining Project is complete with the exception of a few minor details, as well as the Upper Popenoe Sanitary Sewer and Stream Restoration Project, which is expected to be fully complete by 2025, with plans to move forward with renovations to the MUB headquarters and the ongoing Cheat Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant project that will take place in 2026. Work that is expected to keep the utility busy in the near future.
“As you heard this evening, we’re right on to the next one,” said McNulty. “You don’t get to bask in the glory of getting one finished very long, you’re right off to the next project.”