Lawton ramping up for Meadowbrook, Southwest 67th Street water main projects

It’s going to be unpleasant for a while, but the end result will be a better water main and sidewalks.

City of Lawton officials have scheduled a pre-work conference next week with Southwest Water Works, the Oklahoma City firm that the City Council selected for a $5,989,800 contract to replace 16,500 feet of water mains along Meadowbrook and Southwest 67th Street. The two water projects are among five water upgrades that will begin in the next few months, as the City of Lawton moves forward with plans to upgrade its infrastructure.

For central Lawton, the work will center on Meadowbrook between Northwest 38th Street and Northwest 53rd Street, $3.378 million worth of work. Public Utilities Director Rusty Whisenhunt said the 12-inch waterline installation will begin at Northwest 38th Street and move west along Meadowbrook in one-block increments.

Whisenhunt said as Southwest Water Works crews complete a block of water main installation, a crew will come along behind them to test the line, then restore the ground, repair concrete and install a new 5-foot-wide sidewalk. Crews will work in increments the length of Meadowbrook, working on the north side of the street between Northwest 38th and Northwest 49th streets, then moving to the south side of the street for the remainder of the installation.

Meadowbrook is a major access point for that square mile, meaning drivers should pay close attention to the work, city officials said.

“They’re not allowed to totally close it,” Whisenhunt said of the work crew, explaining one lane of Meadowbrook will remain open to help local traffic.

Residents along the mile-long street may experience some interruptions in water service while crews are connecting service lines to the new main, but those interruptions should be short-term, Whisenhunt said. Property owners will be notified by hanging notices on their front doors if that is to happen, he said.

While one Southwest Water Works crew is working on Meadowbrook, a second crew will be tackling the $2.615 million 12-inch water main installation along Southwest 67th Street. That work will install a water main on the west side of Southwest 67th Street between Bishop Road to just south of Combs Road, then west along Bishop about one-half mile.

“They do not have the fire flow that supports the houses,” Whisenhunt said, of a project planned earlier this year to increase water pressure for those living in that square mile area by replacing a deteriorating and undersized private line with a 12-inch city main.

City officials said earlier this year the line is so undersized, it does not provide the water pressure required to meet fire flow standards (the pressure needed to fight fires), meaning no new City of Lawton water meters can be placed on the existing line.

“This puts in a new public main that provides fire flow,” Whisenhunt said.

The water mains work is slated for 210 days, Whisehunt said, of projects expected to eliminate problems mains.