A city water line that runs underneath the runway at Lindbergh Field must be moved to Harbor Drive next spring to accommodate airport construction, but the city says traffic impacts will be lessened because the work will be done at night. The new pipe will run mostly along the eastbound sides of North Harbor Drive and W. Laurel Street between Terminal 1 and Pacific Highway, said John Harris of RBF Consulting, who addressed members of the North Bay Community Planning Board on Oct. 19. The project, which should break ground next spring and take up to eight months to complete, will knock out two lanes during work times. However, all lanes should be available between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m., Harris said. Another part of the project will replace 4.4 miles of pipe beginning on North Harbor Drive west of the boat channel. This part will begin in the spring but will require 18 months to complete, said John Stohr of the city’s Engineering and Capital Projects Department. Besides North Harbor Drive, affected streets include Nimitz Boulevard, Rosecrans Street, Locust Street, Evergreen Street, Avenida de Portugal, Cañon Street, Hugo Street, Catalina Boulevard and Point Loma Avenue. Both parts of the project will replace five miles of cast-iron pipe and one mile of asbestos-cement pipe at a cost of $13 million, Stohr said. Over the next 10 years, 100 miles of cast-iron pipe, which was installed in the 1940s and 1950s and is now rapidly deteriorating, causing sinkholes and traffic messes, he said. In other North Bay planner developments, Kenneth Rae has become the newest board member, replacing Tony Lombardi, who moved to Chula Vista. Rae is the vice president and director of employment services at Veterans Village of San Diego.








