City officials say south, west Houston can expect lower water pressure for at least two weeks

Screen shot of Twitter.com/@abc13houston's post

Thousands of residents of southwest Houston are reportedly expected to experience lower water pressure levels in the coming weeks:

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The City of Houston’s Department of Public Works and Engineering recently announced it will begin maintenance on its Southwest Water Pump Station this week, although the maintenance project is not expected to impact water quality.

Officials say the project involves shutting down a highly-utilized water main along Richmond Avenue in Southwest Houston.

The main, which reportedly measures five-and-half-feet in diameter, will be updated with new valves, and they say the shutdown will affect water pressure in neighborhoods spanning from downtown and Midtown, potentially as far as west and southwest of the city.

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Shannon Rodriguez, a supervising engineer with Houston Public Works, told a local TV station the pressure drop will be between three and five percent:

“It may not affect a lot of our customers but we want to go ahead and speak to the public and let them know we’re doing this work,” she said in the interview.

She also advised customers to call 311 if they are looking for answers or concerns develop about the project.

“This is a scheduled project that we’ve been preparing for for several years. It’s gone through the design process, and we’re prepared to shut it down,” Rodriguez said further. “Just like you have to perform routine maintenance in your house with the replacement of faucets and valves, we have to do the same thing within our drinking water system with our valves.”

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The project is reportedly expected to be completed by December 18; work is prospectively planned to be be done on-site at the pump station, reducing the chances to affect roads or side street traffic.

City officials also said the drop in water pressure will not affect firefighters.

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