City staff urge Hilltop residents to sign work agreements for free lead and galvanized service-line replacement

City of Columbus staff told Hilltop residents that replacement of lead and galvanized water service lines will occur alongside scheduled construction and that the upgrade is free to homeowners when tied to planned city work.

At the meeting, Hannah Mullen of the LED Safe Columbus program said the city will replace both the city-owned portion in the street and the homeowner-owned portion into the basement when crews expose a lead or galvanized line during planned construction. "This is a free upgrade to you," Mullen said, adding that residents must sign a work agreement to allow crews to perform in-home service-line replacement when required.

Mullen said the effort responds to federal requirements and also addresses the very old distribution infrastructure in Columbus, noting some service lines are roughly 100 years old and break frequently. She described an approach intended to limit yard disruption: rather than excavating a continuous trench into the yard, crews generally use minimally invasive techniques to extract the old pipe and pull in new service lines where possible.

Staff gave a concrete near-term example: the city plans a water-main replacement on South Burgess Avenue around October; residents roughly between 698 and 812 South Burgess were identified as likely to be impacted and were encouraged to sign the work agreement. Mullen and other staff said even properties not immediately affected by rain-garden or paver work will be part of a broader program to replace all lead and galvanized service lines in the distribution system over time.

Residents with address-specific questions were invited to visit the LED/lead table or the engineering stations at the open house; staff offered to look up addresses on site to confirm whether a property would be impacted and to explain next steps for scheduling and restoration.