Construction taking place on Ingersoll Dr. and Crawford Rd. in Phenix City

PHENIX CITY, Ala. (WTVM) - A well-traveled Phenix City street is undergoing construction work that’s expected to cause delays for drivers.

Phenix City residents could see much underground pipe construction taking place over the next few years.

Several lanes of Crawford Road were closed for about three weeks for repairs. Now Ingersoll Drive, which connects Crawford Road to the 280 bypass, is expected to be closed for several days or maybe even a few weeks while repair work takes place underground.

“The utilities department for years has always tried to have a PM put in place to repair and replace lines so many feet a year,” said Utilities Director Charles Woody.

PM or Project Management Plan Utilities Director Charles Woody refers to calls for replacing underground pipes throughout the city over 70 years old.

Woody said it’s a slow process due to the pandemic, supply shortages, and unexpected occurrences, but they are working hard to be attentive to the city and residents’ needs.

“We were trying to be proactive. Now, of course, we have things that pop up that we have to address like we did as were talking before on Crawford Road,” said Woody.

Woody is talking about the construction on Crawford Road and Ingersoll Drive. A plan to extend a sewer main 180 feet. Woody says someone is developing four lots that include three homes and a duplex, but none of those lots have water or sewer lines that connect to the system.

When the city tried to make the connection, they bumped into a problem that’ll take making the completion date a few weeks longer.

“Come to find out we have a whole brittle concrete pipe. We got one of our hoses from our trucks stuck in it, and we go to remove it, and we dug down to it and the pipes started collapsing on Crawford Road,” he said.

Now leading them to replace the whole section, something they added to their list.

Woody says staffing shortages will set the completion date back... but he wants residents to know this is their main priority to get the road back open.

Woody said another $11 million project is being put into play at the wastewater treatment plant to help with increased flow capacity.

“We’re increasing the flow of capacity from 6 million gallons a day to 7.5 million gallons a day.”

That project is expected to be completed by December 2023.

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