STEUBENVILLE — The good news is Steubenville’s West End water project is halfway done.

The bad news? There’s still a lot of work to do.

“Water is in the lines and contractors are switching all customers and side streets over to the new lines,” Water Superintendent Jim Jenkins said. “This will last until probably the end of November, switching and connecting everyone.”

The project includes a new 400,000-gallon storage tank at the intersection of Lovers Lane and county Road 26, plus a new booster pump station.

Jenkins said the new tank will be lifted into place the second week of November, “then will stand idle until weather temperatures permit (the contractor) to finish inside painting of the tank, which should be around May, and then (it) will be put into service.”

“Lift station work will continue on it through winter, but with electrical components the way they are, the pump station will not be 100 percent completed until November or December of next year,” he said, adding they’ll start paving “as early next year as weather permits.”

The updates have a $15.4 million price tag, but Jenkins has said it would “improve the resiliency” of the city’s water system by creating a loop connecting the West End pressure zone to the downtown high-pressure zone.

In addition to ensuring an emergency water supply to businesses, schools and health care customers in the West End, the upgrade will protect downtown residents from another lengthy outage like the one suffered in 2018.