HONESDALE -- A major water project got underway Thursday morning in Wayne County.
It's one that many people in Honesdale said is long overdue.
People who live along Riverside Drive in Honesdale said it's not uncommon for them to lose water at least once a week, or to even have brown water coming out of their faucet.
Aqua Pennsylvania began working to fix that problem and more on Thursday.
There were diggers, bobcats, and trucks filled with concrete.
Workers call it a much needed waterline replacement project.
“It’s in real bad condition. The further we go down here, it’s an old transit pipe. They have a break about once a week in here,” said Kirt Gustafson, Job Supervisor at Leeward Construction.
“There`s times where I`ve come home from work and tried to take a shower, and I was like, water sputters and just nothing comes out,” said Hank Degraw of Honesdale.
Degraw lives on Riverside Drive with his family, and said not only is the water quality a major problem, the construction makes it hard to get in and out of his driveway.
Despite the disruption the project is causing many homes in Honesdale, project coordinators said once the water line is all complete it will better protect those living on the street.
“Right now there`s only one fire hydrant on this whole road, right now, so it gives them more pressure more volume, so if there is a fire in any of these houses, they’re good to go,” said Gustafson.
Lisa Constable moved to Riverside Drive a few years ago.
In 2008 she lost her home in another part of the borough to a fire and blames issues with the waterline.
“I lost my home to the fire that was on East Street a few years ago, and it was because there wasn`t enough water supply. They didn`t have enough water to get to the house in time, so we lost the entire house,” said Constable.
The $900,000 project will replace more than 7,000 feet of the old water line, something some said should have happened a long time ago.
“It`s 2012, we shouldn`t be having these issues in such a small town,” said Constable.
This is just one of two major water line projects Aqua Pennyslvania has taken on this year in Honesdale.
Lines along Terrace Street were replaced in August.
That project, along with the Riverside Drive project should be completed in 2013.