By Alex Bridges -- Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER — A $6.5 million overhaul of the city's water mains — and a year of road closings — starts next month.

The project will replace water pipes — some of which date back 150 years — from downtown to the Berryville Avenue corridor, said Perry Eisenach, the city's director of public utilities.

The entire project is expected to take more than a year to complete, Eisenach said.

"We have some very old water mains," Eisenach said. "I think we have a lot of water main breaks for [a] city our size, and one of the reasons we do have so many breaks is that we have a lot of old, cast-iron pipes that are very brittle, and when you have the changes in the temperatures are very prone to bursting."

Plans call for replacing the 6- and 8-inch water mains with 12-inch ductile iron pipes so the city can increase pressure to the Berryville Avenue corridor. The project includes replacing existing water and sanitary sewer service lines, manholes and fire hydrants, as well as sidewalks along the path.

"Most residential streets, you really only need an 8-inch line, but since Berryville is a primary commercial corridor, we want to make sure we have adequate pressure and the supply available to provide that area properly," he said.

Crews with General Excavation of Warrenton will start work on the project on Sept. 2 at East Cork and South Loudoun streets. Workers will replace both the water main and sewer line along Cork Street east to the CSX railroad tracks and South East Lane; north on East Lane to Woodstock Lane; from Woodstock Lane to East Street; then up East Street to Pleasant Valley Road and Berryville Avenue, Eisenach explained.

"We'll have signs up and detours around — that will definitely be part of the project," he added.

Sections of Cork Street in both directions will have to be closed and will reopen once work is completed.

"We're going to be doing so much digging, it's going to be virtually impossible to do all that and maintain traffic at the same time," he said. "It wouldn't be safe, and the project would end up taking significantly longer than if we close the street in the one-block sections."

The work will continue on Berryville Avenue and end at Interstate 81, but the contractor is required to keep at least one lane in each direction open for traffic. That phase likely won't start until summer 2009, Eisenach said, with the entire project expected to be completed by fall 2009.

City officials will answer questions about the project at a public meeting at First Presbyterian Church, 116 S. Loudoun St., on Aug. 28 from 4 to 7 p.m.

* Contact Alex Bridges at abridges@nvdaily.com