One of Trail’s oldest neighbourhoods is getting a much-needed upgrade to its water system.

Construction of Topping Street’s water system along with sanitary and storm systems has reached the final stage of improvements, which is a complete repeat of work that started on the West Trail street last year.

“It was all triggered by the water main that’s on there,” explained John Howes, city engineering technician.

“It was installed in the ‘50s and it’s had continuous failures.”

This area of infrastructure was identified in the latest citywide infrastructure study as a high priority for repair, due to the high number water leaks in the main line.

The second part of the project has a completion date set for Sept. 2, with the cost of both phases totaling about $1 million.

“The infrastructure in Trail is certainly dated, it’s aging,” said Howes.

“A lot of the components are reaching their designed age so, as per a lot of the improvements, we should be putting ten times the capital into our infrastructure but it just doesn’t occur that way.”

Construction, by Maglio Installations out of Nelson, was scheduled for the summer to ensure it wouldn’t have an impact on students traveling to school, as the Columbia Heights bus route that heads up Topping to Daniel Street has been shut down temporarily.