On Wednesday, September 19, 2018, the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority will be holding a public meeting to provide an update on the Southern Extra High Redundancy project.

MWRA’s Southern Extra High service area provides drinking water to Canton, Dedham, Norwood, Stoughton, Westwood, portions of Brookline and Milton, as well as the Roslindale, West Roxbury and Hyde Park sections of Boston. Five communities in the southern portion of the service area (Canton, Norwood, Dedham, Westwood, and Stoughton) use approximately 5 million gallons per day on average and are served by a single water transmission main known as Section 77, which was installed in the 1950s.

The Southern Extra High Redundancy project will provide a second means of transporting water to this service area in the event of a break on Section 77. The project is separated into three separate construction contracts. The first contract is complete and involved the installation of approximately 2 miles of new water main within DCR’s Stony Brook Reservation in Boston from the West Roxbury Parkway, across Washington Street, along Enneking Parkway and end at the Boston city line with Dedham on the Dedham Parkway.

The two additional contracts are within the Town of Dedham. Contract 2 will continue on Dedham Boulevard toward and through East Dedham Square, cross Milton Street onto Walnut, Mt. Vernon, and Jefferson Streets, ending just before East Street. Contract 2 involves the installation of approximately 2.2 miles of new water mains. Contract 2 is currently ongoing and should be completed by December 2019.

The third and last contract continues on Jefferson Street crossing East Street onto Rustcraft Road and then crosses under the commuter rail at Dedham Corporate Station in the direction of the East Street rotary and will travel under route 128 into Westwood. This contract involves the installation of approximately 1.3 miles of new water mains.The contract has recently been awarded to RJV Construction Corporation of Canton. The project is scheduled to be completed by November of 2020.

All roads where the new pipe is installed will be completely paved at the end of each contract from curb to curb. Any sidewalks where the pipe is installed will also be reconstructed as new within the limits of the earthwork at the end of each contract.

MWRA has a notification system for communicating information to residents regarding construction projects, community meetings and more.We encourage all residents to sign up athttp://www.mwra.com/updates/everbridge/join.html.

For more information, please call Jeff McLaughlin at MWRA at 617-305-5762 or email at Jeffrey.McLaughlin@mwra.com.