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Downtown transformation to involve several operations at the same time

Beginning today, Thursday, March 27, Huntington's downtown area will undergo a transformation project that will involve several operations at the same time and could cause a bit of inconvenience to motorists.

Jefferson Street will be closed just south of Washington Street in the first step of the multi-phase plan. Traffic will be able to use Washington Street to Cherry Street and down to Market Street as a detour.

Anthony Goodnight, the city's director of public works and engineering services, says the main project involves repaving Jefferson Street, from West Park Drive south to the railroad tracks at State Street, and Washington and Market streets between Warren and Cherry streets.

The project will allow city workers to repair broken water valves and install new valves that will permit more efficient emergency shutoffs to the downtown area.

"It's infrastructure that's been in the ground for 80 to 100 years and it needs to be replaced from time to time," Goodnight says.

No businesses should be shut down, as the work will be performed in the middle of the street and officials do not expect to turn off the water service during the work.

"We're going to do one project at a time so we're not shutting down downtown for a whole week or so," Goodnight says, adding that four more similar projects are planned between now and the end of the summer.

The new valve insertion will allow workers to section off the streets to fix problems rather than shut down the entire downtown, such as what happened when a water main broke downtown about a month ago.

"We're putting in valves in strategic locations so in future emergency work we can isolate each block individually," Goodnight explains. "We're trying to get to a point where, when he have a problem, we're not shutting off restaurants or if it's in the second block we're not shutting off the third block."

In addition, Vectren Energy will replace gas lines downtown at the same time. Goodnight says city workers will repave the streets after the water system improvements and gas line work are completed.