CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has begun work on a second drinking water distribution pipe as part of the South Rivanna River Crossing Pipeline Project, and you’ll notice heavy equipment around the work site. RWSA’s Westley Kern says this new pipe, which they’ll be running underneath the river, directly connects the South Rivanna Water Treatment Plant to a water pipe near the intersection of 29 and Polo Grounds Road. They’re doubling the size of the pipe, which runs finished drinking water from the plant to a water main running parallel to 29, to 24 inches.

Kern says the water main connects communities and businesses north of the Rivanna River. He says they’re using a horizontal directional drilling technique in the tricky operation of burying some of the pipe underneath the river in order to minimize environmental impacts.