Barkley Water District customers in western Trigg County are on the precipice of much-improved reliability and service.
That’s according to General Manager John Herring, who on Wednesday noted that the $5.1 million project — essentially running from the fingers to the main trunk line — is “a little bit past the halfway point,” with Spring 2026 the expected finish.
Divided into five parts, Herring said the northern two portions of the project have a finished install in the Rockcastle area, but the cleanup and final seeding from Youngblood Excavating and Contracting remains.
Over the next couple of months, he said the final two sections of work will run through the Blue Springs and Canton area, back to US 68/80.
There is no subcontracting in this project, and Herring said officials have kept “pretty good scheduling” on the scope — but that there have been some setbacks.
Last spring this was documented as a 12-month project, and efforts first began in December 2024. However, construction materials were at first difficult to come by, and not long after dirt work and pipe laying began in March, torrential rains and violent weather in both April and May created some serious conflicts.
What’s being replaced is 63,000 feet of original ancillary water line that was installed between 1968 and 1971. These are 60-year-old lines, he said, that have reached their life expectancy.
More reliability, he added, is but one of the many features coming with this improvement — replacing some 4-inch and 6-inch line at about $79 per foot.
Herring noted that roughly $2.2 million was borrowed for the project, and the remaining $2.9 million is being provided through federal grants.
When the project first began, Herring said its cost originally began at $3.6 million with $1 million in loan forgiveness. In bidding the project, though, estimates came in higher, and officials backed off the project until an $800,000 state grant and other funding mechanisms helped make up the difference.
A full list of the work can be heard here:
