South Campus Commons
South Campus Commons residents experienced their last planned water outage last night as work that began in the winter continues on an extensive renovation effort near Route 1.
The most recent work left students in Commons 3 and 4 without water between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Monday night, as crews from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission moved ahead with replacing water mains and renovating sewer lines near the 4300 block of Knox Road. Residents were also left without water Tuesday from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. The project, which costs more than $2 million, includes a string of renovations on Rossburg Drive, Rowalt Drive and eventually Hartwick Road dating back to December 2011.
Several city officials said the updates are necessary for the aging infrastructure — a section of the water main that crews were replacing dated back to the 1940s, according to Lyn Riggins, a WSSC spokeswoman.
Weather permitting, all of the road work should be completed by February, Riggins added. Future work in the coming weeks may cause more outages for students, as Riggins said a scheduled shutdown on Hartwick Road is a few weeks away.
“Obviously we will give prior notice to doing anything like that,” she said.
Though the water outages created an inconvenience for many students who were unable to do laundry, shower or cook with water, they said Capstone, the real-estate company that manages South Campus Commons, had given an “adequate” amount of warning to allow residents to make prior arrangements.
South Campus Commons staff do everything they can to make sure residents know of outages as soon as possible, facilities coordinator Deanna Williams said, because “the only thing we can do is prepare.”
“WSSC is going to shut it off. I mean, there’s nothing that we can really do,” she said.
Williams added she tries to give residents one to two days notice so they are well aware of the time frame and can make arrangements.
Junior bioengineering major Regina Keane said she chose to study in Commons 1 during last week’s water outage in Commons 4.
“Mostly, it’s just an inconvenience because you can’t go to the bathroom, especially if you’re up late at night studying,” she added. “Most people go to bed after 11 o’clock.”
Junior government and politics major Pete Sullivan agreed the apartment building’s management handled the situation as well as possible. However, he said it was still frustrating to come home from working out and have to shower at a friend’s apartment.
“I’m kind of glad they’re getting it out of the way now early in the school year before it gets too late,” Sullivan added.
