As excavators whirred in the background, city officials in Lincoln stood in the middle of Holdrege Street on Thursday to celebrate the start of construction on the city’s massive Water 2.0 project.
The project, expected to be complete by 2048, will connect the city’s municipal water supply to the Missouri River. Currently, Lincoln sources all of its water from wells along the Platte River near Ashland.
Lincoln Mayor Lerion Gaylor Baird called Water 2.0 “one of the most consequential infrastructure projects in Lincoln’s history.”
The 98th Street transmission main, which broke ground on Thursday, is the first component of the project to begin construction. It will run underneath North 98th Street between Holdrege Street and Alvo Road, and it will connect the existing Vine Street Reservoir to the Northeast Pump Station…