LCFWASA
LCFWASA pumps untreated water from just north of Lock and Dam No. 1 on the Cape Fear River in Riegelwood, all the way down to the Sweeney Water Treatment Plant, north of the Isabel Holmes bridge in Wilmington. Water travels through a 48-inch pipeline that stretches 24 miles and crosses the river twice.
Crews are working to install a second, 54-inch parallel pipeline that traverses the same path. Once online, the $37 million project will immediately increase LCFWASA’s delivery output, from 45 millions of gallons a day (mgd) the current max to an estimated 62 mgd, without additional improvements necessary. It will also provide redundancy that will protect the system against catastrophe: In 2016 during Hurricane Matthew, the pipe ruptured, losing 12.5 mgd over a two-week period.
Downtown sidewalks and streets along two blocks of N. Front Street will be torn up beginning in early 2022 as part of a $3.5 million streetscape project. (Port City Daily photo/Johanna F. Still)
WILMINGTON Businesses spoke, the city listened. The North Front Street streetscape project initially slated to begin in October has been pushed back to the beginning of 2022.
The delayed timing is a response to dozens of concerned downtown businesses and advocacy organizations, including Wilmington Downtown Inc. and the Downtown Business Alliance, which asked the city to refrain from tearing up two blocks during the holiday season.
The $3.5 million streetscape project, financed by the city’s 2014 voter-approved transportation bond, plans for a complete street and sidewalk redesign on N. Front Street between Chestnut and Walnut streets. Cape Fear Public Utility is also partnering with the city on the project to replace ’40s-era utility lines.