If you’re contemplating a stroll Downtown along the Northbank Riverwalk in front of the Jacksonville Landing, you’ll have to put it on your calendar for March.
That section of the walkway was closed Monday because JEA is performing maintenance on the 40-year-old, 54-inch sanitary sewer pipe that runs directly under the courtyard at the riverfront entertainment and retail center.
The pipe is not in danger of failing, but it’s a critical piece of infrastructure, said Greg Corcoran, JEA manager of Project Outreach, the utility’s community involvement department.
“We want to add another 20 years to its life,” he said.
The pipe carries about 4.5 million gallons of sewage each day from Downtown and Riverside to the Buckman Wastewater Treatment Plant along Talleyrand Avenue.
Instead of digging a trench through the Landing from Hogan Street almost to Newnan Street, a liner will be installed inside the pipe.
The other alternative, Corcoran said, would be to install a replacement pipe underneath Independent Drive. But that also would have involved digging a trench and closing the street while the work was underway.
The Riverwalk is closed so a 24-inch temporary bypass line to carry the wastewater can be installed to continue carrying the wastewater to the treatment facility.
“All people will see on the Riverwalk is a black pipe. It will be sealed and there will be no odor,” Corcoran said.
Most of the two-month schedule for the $1.05 million project will be devoted to setting up the temporary pipe and the relining equipment and then removing both. Installation of the liner will take only about a week, he said.
The rehabilitation is part of JEA’s maintenance program. Sewer lines throughout Duval County are regularly inspected and placed on a “priority projects list” for maintenance.
Corcoran said large-scale projects are planned so as to inconvenience the public and businesses as little as possible.
That’s just fine with the management of the Landing.
Spokeswoman Samantha Ashcraft said they’ve been working with JEA to schedule the job and the timing was chosen based on the Landing’s schedule of events.
“We are such a weather-dependent venue and January and February are our slower months,” she said.
The restaurants, clubs and stores will be open as usual during the project.
“The only disturbance will be that people won’t be able to walk along the Riverwalk,” said Ashcraft.
Corcoran said JEA is confident the project will be finished on time, based on similar jobs that have been completed.
An early-March completion will be just in time for Downtown’s festival season to begin.
Ashcraft said Mutt March, the Jacksonville Humane Society’s annual fundraiser, is March 5, followed on March 12 by the 11th annual Gumbo Festival presented by Parrot Heads in Natural Settings, the local Jimmy Buffett fan club.
This year, a barbecue festival will take over Hogan Street adjacent to the Landing on March 12 and it’s also the date for the 2016 Gate River Run.
Fionn MacCool’s Irish Pub and Restaurant will anchor the St. Patrick’s Day celebration 8 a.m.-2 a.m. March 17.
The only drawback, Ashcraft said, is with the sewer pipe project and the collapse of a portion of Liberty Street near the former courthouse parking deck, much of the Northbank Riverwalk is not accessible to residents and tourists.
“But it’s all good for Downtown in general,” she said.
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