The Bradford City Water Authority announced Wednesday that work has begun to relocate two water mains along a portion of Marilla Brook, West of Bradford near the 1000 block of West Washington Street.

Cummins Construction was awarded the low bid for the project at $278,000. The project will relocate two water mains that were laid directly on the surface of the stream bed of Marilla Brook. One is a raw water main carrying raw water from both Marilla and Gilbert Reservoirs to the water treatment plant located on West Corydon Street and the other is a finished water main sending treated water to the Gilbert Lane storage tank.

The new relocated water mains will consist of PVC C900 material and will be buried and concrete encased beneath the Marilla Brook stream bed.

The Water Authority made the decision to relocate the existing water mains which were originally installed in the late 1890s, after a small leak had developed at one of the bell joints and had to be repaired in 2022. The current project is permitted and approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and is expected to take approximately four weeks to complete.

“Those original water mains have performed extremely well over the past century and the Water Authority is looking forward to getting them relocated and protected from the elements for future generations,” Executive Director Steve Disney added.