Water tower projects planned

Published 9:54 pm Monday, July 9, 2012

The city plans to undertake the construction of new water towers and a paint job on another one in the coming years.

The city of Suffolk is planning to erect new water towers — one on land donated by a councilman — and repaint the water tower visible from Interstate 664, public utilities director Albert S. Moor says.

As part of a capital plan adopted two years ago, a new water tower will be erected on a little over an acre of land near Pruden Boulevard, donated to the city by Councilman Charles Parr, Moor said.

The tank will serve the dual purpose of increasing Suffolk’s firefighting capabilities and, with a transmission main to be built by the Western Tidewater Water Authority, deliver water to Isle of Wight County, he said.

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“It’s in design — early design,” Moor said. “It will probably be two years before it’s built.”

Another water tower will be built off Route 13/32, he said. “We will bid on that one in the next 90 days (with) completion by the end of 2013,” he said.

He said a third planned water tower is off Route 58.

The facilities will be so-called standpipe tanks with two-million gallon capacities, and stand 100 feet tall, according to Moor, and in part will supply water to new industrial developments.

Parr said he has saved the city a lot of money by donating the land.

“I donated it because the other spots they were looking at for this were upward of $400,000,” he said. “That’s ridiculous. I’m concerned about the city moving forward and I’m not going to take any compensation for it.”

Meanwhile, a new paint job is planned for the faded water tower by I-664 in North Suffolk.

The tank will be repainted “in the near future,” Moor said, after a study is conducted into the best way to go about ensuring water supply while it’s being done.

“We’re going to be doing some modeling to see if we need the new tanks online” before undertaking the paint work, he said.