Water lines to be installed under US 60 in Apache Junction

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

Construction on a $1.4 million project to install two water lines under U.S. Highway 60 at Goldfield Road and Idaho Road in Apache Junction is to start in February or March.

The Apache Junction Water District board, comprised of Apache Junction City Council members, on Dec. 16 discussed the project and an $88,800 engineering agreement with Colliers Engineering & Design Inc. for engineering services for the water main extensions.

A 12-inch water line was installed from the U-Haul development just up to the U.S. Highway 60 Superstition Freeway, Water District Director Mike Loggins said.

“And then north of there we have a gas station that the water line ended. We’ve never connected those two locations,” he said. “Also on Goldfield, we had Goldview subdivision come in that’s just north of U.S. 60, and we already had development with Dolce Vita and a couple other parks on the south side that brought those water mains just up to those locations and we haven’t been able to tie those in. So we want to do this to loop our system.”

Design plans for the previously approved $1.4 million project should be available by the end of January with the construction starting in February or March, he said.

Board member Bryan Soller asked if the work will cause traffic problems.

“Are we going to be able to do this without snarling up traffic on Idaho?” he asked.

The water district would work with the Arizona Department of Transportation on its right of way and what can be done, Loggins said.

“We’ll probably take one lane out underneath Idaho. So may delay the project just because the snowbirds are in town to probably April-ish so we have a little less traffic at that location or make sure that we don’t adversely affect our hazardous waste day because I know we use Idaho on that too,” he said. “We’re going to work with (ADOT) to open-cut this and then put casing in first and then we go ahead and push water lines in there so if it does create a leak on that water line it flows out the ends of the casing and doesn’t affect the freeway either.”

Connecting the water lines on the north and south of the freeway is important, Board member Darryl Cross said.

“(I)t’s extremely important to have multiple directions of flow. It really substantially helps the service that we provide our customers,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of issues where dead-end mains really create a lot of havoc for businesses to the point where they have to install a fire pump. By having it interconnected like that where it grids throughout the entire area just makes a huge difference. So thank you for doing this.”

Water district

The Apache Junction water district supplies well water (groundwater) pumped from the Eastern Salt River Sub-Basin Aquifer, which flows southwesterly under Apache Junction and its surrounding areas. The groundwater is treated for arsenic removal where necessary, disinfected with chlorine, pumped into storage tanks and blended with Colorado River (surface) water.

The surface water is transported through the Central Arizona Project canal system and filtered and purified at the Superstition Area Water Plant before being introduced into the distribution system.

The water district can also receive treated CAP water from the city of Mesa through an interconnect for a backup supply of water, if needed.

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines, https://www.yourvalley.net/civility-checklist/.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.