Image default

New water tank for the East End

The five million gallon ground storage tank in Church Hill at 714 N. 30th Street between 29th, 30th, M and N streets, is being replaced. The tank is used to provide processed drinking water to customers in the east part of town.

The existing tank was built in 1954 and has reached the end of its useful life. The project involves building a new tank, putting it in service, and then demolishing the old tank. The new tank will be south of the existing tank behind the Church Hill Pump Station building. Construction should begin in April and take until May 2014.

9 comments

Elaine Odell 07/12/2012 at 9:13 AM

mmm…this is a new public works project, so, i wonder if it qualifies for getting some public ART on it. just yesterday, we drove by the existing tank and thought it would be a great mural location.

Reply
Brad 07/12/2012 at 10:19 AM

I have been thinking that this area needs a major redesign – trees planted, other facilities. I guess now is not a good time. I wouldn’t want to live across the street while this construction is going on, but I will watch the progress with interest when I take my dog for a walk.

Though a redesign of the space where the new water tank is going is not timely – the adjacent Ethel Bailey Furman Park could use a new vision, new trees, maybe an expansion of some of the facilities, etc. This park is huge compared to the little Chimborazo playground area into which it appears that every form of park entertainment is soon going to be jammed. Maybe we need to spread the wealth by working with a coordinated vision to improve all of the neighborhood’s parks (including both the intensive use parks: little Chimbo, Ethel Furman, Bill Robinson, the old high school park facilities on 31st; and the natural space parks: Libby Hill, Taylor Hill, Jefferson, big Chimbo) and by balancing the intensity of the use and addition of improvements across the entire neighborhood.

Reply
Eric Huffstutler 07/12/2012 at 2:27 PM

Sorry Elaine, to me Wall Art is nothing more than glorified Urban Slum Graffiti and has no place in historic areas…though this falls in the doughnut hole surrounded by historic districts.

Reply
Brad 07/13/2012 at 10:43 AM

Elaine – I’ve often thought the same thing about murals on the water tank. It would be really cool to get some neat art decorating that massive cement canvas. An artist could wrap an entire life size blue whale around the tank or how about a life size tropical jungle with a menagerie of animals (toucans, parrots, panthers, orangutans elephants, snakes (maybe divided into sections showing vegetation and animals endemic to South/Central American, Africa, South Asia) carefully hidden in among the tree trunks, vines, flowers and foliage and visible only after some concentrated effort – that would be so cool!). Some really neat possibilities! – or will be on the new tank if it is of similar design. I think an interesting display of creativity on such a visible structure would be an interesting and inspiring addition to the neighborhood.

Reply
Ray 07/13/2012 at 12:22 PM

I don’t know a damn thing about water tanks other than there are different types.

Is this one going to be similar to the current one (short a squatty) or something taller (like you see in west Henrico off 64) or something else?

Reply
Ryan_R 07/13/2012 at 7:41 PM

I’ve asked the project manager for the elevations and site plan for the project. I’ll share it with folks once it is sent to me.

Reply
Mike 01/24/2015 at 3:39 PM

CHPN, do you know the status of this? Haven’t seen an update since 2013. Thanks.

Reply
John M 01/24/2015 at 3:47 PM

Nope. Wonder about this every time I walk by.

Reply
ann 01/24/2015 at 5:13 PM

7th district meeting this coming Wednesday. Bring these questions to the your city council rep: /2015/01/22/7th-district-meeting-set-for-next-week_39922/

Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.