The project is separate from the company’s ongoing natural gas main line replacement that started in 2009 in the Dayton area, the company said. That main line work that began under Vectren is this year impacting 13 communities in a four-county area, including Centerville, Dayton, Fairborn, Kettering, Oakwood, Riverside and Xenia, CenterPoint said.
Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF
Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF
The 14-mile transmission line replacement resulting in the trench work started after an inspection “revealed reasons for us to replace the pipeline,” said Alyssia Oshodi, a CenterPoint spokeswoman.
The transmission lines were built in the 1950s and “we continuously go in and inspect the lines and if it reveals to us there is a need to replace it,” she added.
The Centerville trench work runs northeast from Yankee Street to Wilmington Pike, records show. It includes digging paths across 50-foot wide right of way in residential neighborhoods, according to the city.
Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF
Credit: NICK BLIZZARD/STAFF
Trench work runs just west of Ohio 48 through Revere Village Apartments, across Virginia Avenue and behind the Centerville Library and the city police department, both on West Spring Valley Road.
CenterPoint is seeking to reduce any disruptions and will restore the property when the work is done, Oshodi said.
“Our goal is always to try and complete these projects as quickly as possible and minimize the impact to our customers,” she said. “We understand that it can be an inconvenience.”
Work in Centerville is expected to be completed by August, as will part of the Bellbrook project, Oshodi said. Cedarville and Wilberforce projects are planned to be done by November.
Work will continue next year in Bellbrook and Xenia, she said.
Longtime Centerville resident Jim Bohman received a CenterPoint letter several weeks ago stating that his Black Oak Estates home is in the project’s path.
Bohman said some of his neighbors didn’t see a CenterPoint notice or may have overlooked it. Centerville Public Works Director Pat Turnbull said “there may be some confusion” as the company name is still relatively new to the Dayton area after the 2019 completion of its deal with Vectren.
The letter Bohman received mentioned a 50-foot wide right of way and “the adjacent 20-foot temporary easement,” he said.
Bohman said when he bought the land in the early 1970s he was told of the right of way in the rear of the property. He said it was owned by DP&L and later Vectren.
Bohman initially thought he might lose a backyard shed he built in the mid-1980s. But he said Friday that crews were working behind his house and it appeared his property might be spared.
“We’ve really lucked out,” he said. “I don’t think I’m going to lose my shed and I think they’re going to put the entire pipeline on the other side of the property line and put the dirt there, too.
“So we may be getting out of this free and clear,” Bohman added. “But the neighbors across the way are going to get all of the dirt and the pipeline.”
PIPELINE WORK
These Dayton-area counties are involved in this year’s CenterPoint Energy natural gas main pipeline replacement, a project that started in 2009. It is separate from a 20-inch transmission line the company is replacing in Bellbrook, Cedarville, Centerville and Wilberforce this year.
GREENE
•Completed: Cedarville, Jamestown.
•Being conducted: Fairborn, Yellow Springs, Xenia.
MONTGOMERY
•Completed: West Carrollton.
•Being conducted: Centerville, Dayton, Germantown, Kettering, Oakwood, Riverside.
•Future work: Brookville, Miamisburg, Vandalia.
PREBLE
•Completed: West Alexandria.
•Being conducted: Eaton.
•Future work: Lewisburg, New Paris.
MIAMI
•Completed: Covington, Tipp City.
•Being conducted: Bradford, Piqua, Troy.
•Future work: Pleasant Hill, West Milton.
SOURCE: CenterPoint Energy.
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