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WORLAND — The City of Worland’s three-phase “15th Street Project” will actually begin at Bower Avenue this week with the replacement of 700 feet of a water line.

Worland Public Works Superintendent Brian Burky said Viper Underground of Riverton will be mobilizing and getting equipment ready Monday.

In preparation for the project, the city invited residents from the Bower neighborhood, in addition to council members from Ward 2 — Mandy Horath, Dennis Koch and Christy Schneider — for a meeting Thursday night. Burky said there was a handful of residents in attendance.

He said the project impacts 18 taps along the water main.

The city will be providing a temporary above ground water line to the residents during the duration of the project. He said Viper Underground preferred to divide this portion of the project up so only five or six “taps” are needing to be on the temporary line at any one time.

The temporary line will be wrapped with heat tape and insulated so it does not freeze. They are asking residents to keep a pencil-stream of water running at all times when they are connected to the temporary line. Burky said water bills will be adjusted so residents are not charged for the additional water usage.

He said even with the temporary line there may be short periods of time (hour or two) where the main will have to be shut off.

Another issue that was mentioned at Thursday’s meeting was that they will be doing work in the alley so the alley will be closed with limited or no access to the alley during the project. Burky said the city will be moving dumpsters from the alley to the street.

“There’s another imposition there but we’re hoping they won’t have any farther to walk,” Burky said.

The project is expected to last about four weeks Burky said.

Burky said people have asked why the city is doing the project now and the reason is two-fold. One, they had to wait for the water to be out of the canal to ensure lower groundwater table. Two, “we’re running late with all the work we did with the ice jam [in February] and the [runoff] flood in June. Both of those took a lot of staff time, especially the [flood] in June, that took hundreds and hundreds of man hours fixing the sewer line out by the sewer lagoon and working on the riverbank. That put us behind. We were hoping something in November or December but just couldn’t pull it off.”

Burky said if anyone has questions about the project they can contact him at city hall, 347-2486, Extension 110.

He added that Viper Underground has done previous work for the city and the “contractor is very approachable” if there are minor issues like early morning noise or blocking traffic.

“The fact is, it’s still a tough project. They are going to have equipment back there and it’s going to last three or four weeks. It’s going to be an imposition” Burky said.