The first excavations for the Ballarat Sewer Build will begin on Peel Street next Tuesday, April 6, with works focused on Little Bridge Street.
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Traders and drivers are urged to take care in the area as work begins.
The Ballarat Sewer Build is the first major upgrade in the network's 100 year history - Central Highlands Water will be duplicating the main CBD sewer main from Brown Hill to Mount Pleasant.
READ MORE: Ballarat sewer build: $25m upgrade announced
Works will be staged, with the first part of the project to take place from Scott Parade to just north of Grant Street.
A rolling worksite will be used to minimise the effects on CBD traders, particularly around the Bridge Mall, and it's expected disruptions to sections of footpaths and building facades will only take one or two days, instead of closing the entirety of Peel Street for the project.
Sections of 10 to 30 metres will be completed at a time before the site moves further down the street, and the City of Ballarat will manage traffic control.
Microtunnelling drills will be deployed under major roads - Mair Street, Curtis Street, and Little Bridge Street - to keep traffic flowing
There will be road closures and delays on Peel Street, however, joining closures on Armstrong Street during GovHub's construction and Lydiard Street while a solution to the rail gates reopening is found.
A CHW media statement notes "early planning and investigative works have been under way to commence this legacy project, without disrupting traders or the community", but warns "substantially-sized machinery and equipment" will be used.
"Through the Ballarat Sewer Build, CHW is implementing an entirely different strategy to traditional infrastructure works management; using innovation, planning and engagement to lead our approach and minimise the impact on the community," it states.
"Investigative and preparation works that would traditionally have seen intersections of roads closed have been approached differently, to avoid disrupting businesses and locals. These works have included investigation works, which includes locating underground services such as gas, Telstra, power and drainage to avoid any network outages."
Temporary site facilities have been established at council's Scott Parade car park, and some will be moved to the Anderson Street West car park as work moves in that direction.
The first stage is expected to take about 16 weeks, before construction begins on the second stage, from White Flat Oval to the CHW facility in Mount Pleasant.
The third stage will go from Scott Parade to the Brown Hill Hotel via Morres Street.
At the project's launch in February, it was noted the massive project will use Australian-made, glass-reinforced pipes to improve capacity and provide redundancies in the network, and construction will take between three to five years to complete.
Project manager Mick Dwyer said at the launch the team's focus during the works will be minimising disruption after a tough year for traders.
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"We know they're going to feel some forms of impact, and we'd love for it all to go smoothly without any noise or impact but it will cause minor forms - we want to make sure we're on top of that and I'll be personally around at any time for any one of the traders or residents," he said.
"Our calculations were starting to suggest that while we've still got capacity in our system, we need to plan for the future."
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