OBSERVER Photo Crews were working at Sixth Street and Woodrow Avenue this week in Dunkirk.

Water projects in the city are underway, with the biggest focus being on a 20-inch water line that runs between Brigham Road and Marauder Drive that went through the Brownfield area on Lucas Avenue. It was previously shut off.

“During that project we found out that the nature of that project showed that that water line was deteriorated and was no longer usable,” Director of Public Works Randy Woodbury said at the Finance Committee late last month. “We were losing more water out of that then we were selling. It used to be a main feed for the AL Tech facility and that’s all gone and that land is being actively looked at by the mayor’s development team to try and put something in there.”

The city is also trying to acquire a portion of that so that the DPW can expand their Street Department.

“We are going to be replacing that water line which runs from Brigham Road to Marauder Drive,” Woodbury added. “We will replace the line and will go along the east sidewalk of Brigham Road to the sidewalk between Lucas and Seventh then we’ll go down the median of Seventh Street all the way to Marauder Drive and there will be fire hydrants along the way.”

Currently there are several black capped or unusable hydrants there; those will now become blue capped and high powered once this project is complete; Roosevelt will get new fire hydrants at several locations as well.

“We turned a problem where our water line was essentially worn out because of a hazardous area to now getting a better water line in a better location,” Woodbury stated.

The city is also looking at working on smaller water lines on Sixth Street near Roosevelt Avenue and Lafayette Street this year.