Charlottesville, VA… September 10, 2025… Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority will hold a Public Information Session about the Central Water Line Project on September 16, 2025. The session will take place at the Carver Recreation Center located at 233 4th Street, NW, Charlottesville, VA 22902. The doors will open at 5:00 PM, followed by a formal presentation starting at 5:15 PM.
The information session will provide details surrounding the Central Water Line Project. Attendees will learn about the project’s history, scope, alignment, construction activities, schedule, and safety initiatives.
Community members are invited to attend the meeting in person or remotely through Zoom. The link for the Zoom presentation is https://zoom.us/j/94618028020
Water Infrastructure Upgrades
Over the next five years, RWSA will invest more than $300 million to enhance our urban raw water storage capabilities, raw water transmission pipelines, and transmission pipelines for finished water (treated drinking water). The purpose of these projects is to improve the capacity, redundancy, and resiliency of our drinking water systems. Doing so will help prevent unplanned outages and ensure residents have a constant, reliable, clean supply of water at their tap.
- New Earthen Dam In 2014, RWSA completed building a new dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir.
- Water Treatment Plant Improvements Recent facility renovations and upgrades have increased treatment capacity.
- Ragged Mountain Reservoir Pool Fill Project RWSA will fully utilize the reservoir’s storage capacity by adding 700 million gallons for a total of 2.1 billion gallons.
- Ragged Mountain Reservoir to Observatory Water Treatment Plant Raw Water Line and Pump Station A new 36” transmission pipe is replacing two smaller 70 and 100-year-old transmission pipes.
- South Rivanna River Crossing A large 24” finished water transmission pipe is being added to better support the northern area in Albemarle County.
- Central Water Line The Central Water Line will provide a high-flow, large-diameter finished water transmission pipe that will better connect RWSA’s treatment facilities, transmission pipes, water storage tanks, and water distribution piping in the urban area.
- South Fork Rivanna Reservoir to Ragged Mountain Reservoir Raw Water Line The new line and pump station will allow RWSA to fully utilize the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir’s watershed and Ragged Mountain Reservoir’s storage capacity. It will also allow both water treatment plants to pull water from either or both reservoirs.
Project Overview
The Central Water Line Project will improve the Urban Area Drinking Water System by installing a finished water transmission pipe through the southern and central portions of Charlottesville. It will be constructed of 24-inch and 30-inch ductile iron pipes and span approximately five miles. The new finished water transmission pipe will allow water to flow better through our community’s systems while providing a backup path for water to travel should another finished water transmission pipe break. This project marks a significant endeavor that will provide immediate benefits upon completion for current and future generations.
Water Line Route History
In the spring of 2021, the RWSA began a routing study for a new Central Water Line. This project was conducted with an engineering consultant and in coordination with Charlottesville’s Utilities and Traffic Departments, along with the Albemarle County Service Authority (ACSA). The routing study considered technical and logistical factors such as constructability, neighborhood and traffic impacts, access and easement requirements, permitting challenges, construction costs, railroad crossing logistics, coordination with planned City infrastructure projects, and the density of underground utilities. Between 2022 and 2025, RWSA sent out several letters to residents, held community meetings with neighborhood associations, provided website updates, updated project fact sheets, coordinated with private property owners for easements, and provided regular updates to the RWSA Board of Directors, Charlottesville City Council, and Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.
Schedules
The finished water transmission pipe will occur in two phases and span approximately five miles.
- Phase 1 construction is expected to begin later this year and finish in 2029.
- Phase 2 is expected to begin in the spring of 2026 and finish in 2028.
For more information about the project and to sign up for regular updates, please visit https://rivannawater.org/central-water-line-project/.