Utility improvements being made
Crews have been busy this week throughout Columbia making improvements on utilities officials say will help emergency responses and save money.
A portion of Church Street was closed Wednesday as improvements were being made on the city’s gas lines.
“Center Point Energy is working to install several new lines and making some major upgrades,” Mayor Justin McKenzie said. “They started in the alphabet streets around Mississippi Avenue and Texas Avenue and will be moving forward with that. They have a plan to move all the way across town, replacing several different lines and making upgrades to them.”
There were also crews on Broad Street in front of Mississippi Power installing new valves in the water lines and a new fire hydrant. McKenzie said there was a large portion of businesses and homes that were reliant on just one valve, and installing new valves will reduce the potential fallout if something were to bust.
“We can minimize the amount of businesses or residences without water for any amount of time by going in and cutting off certain valves and opening others to keep a loop in the line and just cut out that small section. We think moving forward that’s really going to help us,” he said.
The new fire hydrant is one of 15 throughout the city that is being installed and will help provide better emergency response to the community. They will also help improve the fire ratings.
“Following the installation of the fire hydrants, we’re going to call the rating bureau back in and hopefully we’re going to see that fire rating drop over the course of the next month or two,” McKenzie said.
Currently the Columbia Fire Department is a Class 6 and the hope is to drop down to a Class 5 with plans to reach a Class 4 in the future, which will help commercial businesses and residents save on fire insurance.
Thursday morning McKenzie was also working with the Marion County School District and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality at the Columbia-Marion County Airport as the city begins to relocate the rubbish pit to Mississippi 586 to accommodate the airport expansion.
Pictured Above: Center Point Energy contractor Connor Parish oversees Craig Sellers and Chris Cookmeyer replace a gas line underneath Church Street Wednesday afternoon. Photo by Joshua Campbell
