EWEB water main replacement work closes major roads downtown overnight

Eugene Water & Electric Board is replacing water mains on East Broadway from Alder Street to High Street and on Hilyard Street between East Broadway and East Eighth Avenue, causing disruption for businesses and student apartments in the area.

Work began July 7 and is expected to continue into September. The roads are closed between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m., Sunday through Friday.

At the same time, the city of Eugene is in the midst of its Broadway Paving and Sidewalks Project, which includes the repaving of East Broadway from Mill Street to Alder Street. The city’s project is divided into two phases, and the first phase was completed before EWEB’s work began.

Phase two is set to begin this month.

“The asphalt concrete is really expensive,” EWEB project manager Ryan Nossaman said. “The city is doing a project, and we like to get our utilities moved and upgraded out of the way before they get paved over.”

The current pipes were installed in 1948 and will be replaced with larger diameter pipes to increase flow for fire protection and meet growing demand.

The construction is happening overnight to minimize disruption to cars, bicycles and pedestrians on the major road, Nossaman said.

“It’s kind of safer for everyone,” Nossaman said. “Obviously, the workers have to work at night, but overall there’s less risk with vehicles traveling up and down the road.”

Students returning to campus in September may expect outages in some buildings.

“EWEB crew likes to perform outages on large housing complexes at night for the reason there’s a lot less use,” Nossaman said, “just to limit the exposure to everybody.” 

While construction is underway, about 15 residential and business parking spots on East Broadway aren’t available.

EWEB has been sending email newsletters to the residential buildings and businesses in the area to keep them informed, but several residents expressed frustration to Lookout Eugene-Springfield.

“It’s been pretty godawful,” said Maria Velarde, a resident and employee at The Rive Eugene at 700 E. Broadway. “The first week, I didn’t fall asleep until four or five in the morning for seven days straight. It was terrible.”

Velarde began working out twice a day to ensure that she would be tired enough by nighttime to fall asleep despite the loud construction.

She lives on the eighth floor and can still hear the noise. The road closures got in her way, too.

“About a week and a half ago, and I was coming out of the parking garage here, and I just left and went to the grocery store after work one day,” Velarde said. “I’m coming back from the grocery store, and this entire street was closed off. I just went around the signs. I felt bad, obviously, but what else is someone that parks over here supposed to do?”