Pinellas County outlines two St. Pete Beach water‑main replacements; Ninth Avenue to close during work

Pinellas County Utilities presented plans Monday to replace two aging, subaqueous cast‑iron water mains serving parts of St. Pete Beach.

The projects are a replacement of the Passagrill (Passagrill/Passagrill Way) subaqueous main — a cast‑iron 16‑inch line that has leaked — and a Vina del Mar/Maritana neighborhood program to replace a 12‑inch cast‑iron subaqueous line and smaller neighborhood mains. "This is an existing 16 inch subaqueous cast iron watermain. It's reached the end of its service life," said Susan Gobel Canning, planning and project management division, Pinellas County Utilities.

The county expects to use directional drilling for the subaqueous segments. For the Passagrill crossing, the plan is to directional‑drill from Ninth Avenue in St. Pete Beach to Sixth Street West in Tierra Verde and to install a newer HDPE pipe sized larger than the existing line. "We're working with the Army Corps of Engineers to get our permit to do the…