CHESAPEAKE — Water projects to better protect and serve the village of Chesapeake was the motivation for recent work by Aqua Ohio.

Aqua Ohio completed two water line projects replacing 2-inch lines with 6-inch lines and moving lines into the right of way.

The Fourth Avenue project at Fourth and Munford Lane moved the lines from the back of people’s homes to the front by the curb.

“Before, the water lines were on people’s properties,” Jeff LaRue, community relations coordinator for Aqua Ohio, said. “Moving them to the edge of the street will make it easier next time there is a break. We won’t have to go onto people’s properties to fix it.”

Going from 2-inch lines to 6-inch lines makes a very big difference, he said.

“Two-inch water lines have a hard time keeping up with heavy water flows,” LaRue said. “Six-inch lines will make things a lot easier.”

Aqua Ohio also worked on lines at Bridge Way and Big Branch Road.

The difference between this project and the Fourth Avenue project was instead of relocating the water lines, they were just replaced.

“The driving force of both of these projects is four-fold,” LaRue said. “Water quality, fire protection, reliability and serviceability.”

The Fourth Avenue project cost $72,000 and the Bridge Way project cost $78,000.

“We are continually evaluating water systems and finding out where we need work,” LaRue said. “We look at where there have been a lot of breaks or problems. Our company is constantly investing in infrastructure, and we plan for these kind of things in our current rates.”

Aqua Ohio serves approximately 500,000 residents in 17 counties across the state of Ohio.