{"id":243063,"date":"2026-04-23T10:32:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243063\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:32:20","slug":"jacksonville-lead-service-line-replacement-to-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/243063\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville lead service line replacement to start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jacksonville will begin replacing about 245 lead service lines throughout the northwest part of town starting in about June, according to officials.<\/p>\n<p>Lead is considered a toxic substance, and there is no safe amount to consume. Children exposed to lead are particularly susceptible to brain damage, developmental damage and lead poisoning, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/lead-prevention\/symptoms-complications\/index.html\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Centers for Disease Control<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Spreen, a professional engineer with Benton Engineering, said people would likely be getting notices about the project in the next couple of weeks. Phase 1 of the 10-phase project will see the lead service lines replace the pipes in the northeast part of town.<\/p>\n<p>In January, the city officially started the bidding process for a company to take on the project. MB Construction was chosen as the contractor with a bid of about $1.54 million. Bids are not the guaranteed final cost of a project.<\/p>\n<p>That cost is less than the $3.9 million in funding that the city was ready to use in\u00a0grants and loans for the project.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No matter what, it&#8217;s less money than what we&#8217;d originally anticipated,&#8221; said Senior Engineering Technician Adam Fox on March 23 to Jacksonville City Council. &#8220;And some of that is to do with the efforts that you (the city) put forward with your potholing &#8230; which will reduce some of the the service lines that need to be replaced in these areas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Spreen said people who live in the area north of Dunlap Street and east of North Main Street, which is the general area Phase 1 takes place, can expect to get notices in the mail letting them know what will happen next.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The city was actually going to start sending notices out to residents here in the next few weeks in regards to this project specifically,&#8221; Spreen said.<\/p>\n<p>Notices will contain information about MB Construction, Benton Engineering and when an employee might come to their home.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People can expect a contractor to be coming to their residents or or businesses in that area and requesting access,&#8221; Spreen said.<\/p>\n<p>Contractors will replace part of a service line into homes when they visit. Property owners will not have to pay anything for the process.<\/p>\n<p>While Phase 1 encompasses about 245 lead service lines that need to be replaced, Jacksonville&#8217;s water treatment plant estimated there are about 3,759 lead service lines total in town.<\/p>\n<p>In January, Benton Engineering officials said Phase 1 would take about a year to complete. Phase 2 of the project will\u00a0start in fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Officials said Jacksonville has been proactive with service line identification through its\u00a0potholing program. Federal requirements state work to begin a town&#8217;s lead pipeline replacement have to start by 2027. After that, it can take 10 years to complete the project.<\/p>\n<p>Potholing for Phase 2 will inspect about 545 locations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacksonville will begin replacing about 245 lead service lines throughout the northwest part of town starting in about&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,115,278],"class_list":["post-243063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}