Drivers who travel along Nimitz Highway soon will have to avoid construction once again as the city Board of Water Supply gears up for a $3.7 million, nine-month project to install water mains on and near the busy traffic corridor.

Water Supply spokeswoman Su Shin said there has been a lot of work along the busy stretch of road, but the area has aging pipes that need to be replaced.

"We replaced waterlines up to a point and stopped," Shin said. "We are now picking up where we stopped. We know it has an impact on the community."

A team from the department will give a presentation on the project at the Downtown Neighborhood Board meeting tonight.

From February 2003 until November 2004, Nimitz Highway was a maze of potholes, steel plates, flashing barricades, plastic cones and last-second lane-closure signs while the state Department of Transportation made much-needed improvements.

The repaved road now has new underground utilities, curbs and gutters, intersections that comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, new makai sidewalks and railings, and new streetlights and traffic signals from near River Street to Fort Street Mall.

The new project, expected to begin in October and last about nine months, is farther east of the previous work.

Construction will run along Aloha Tower Drive near Aloha Tower Marketplace, past the Hawaiian Electric power plant, up Richards Street and turn left onto Nimitz Highway for about 500 feet.

Crews will dig open trenches between 4 to 5 feet deep and 2 to 3 feet wide and install 12-inch and 16-inch water mains.

Kawehi Yim, Water Supply administrative assistant, said the tentative work schedule is from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays.

"It will be done at night. That is the stipulation given to us by the state Department of Transportation," Yim said. "Because it is night work, we are applying to the Health Department for a noise permit."

Work will not be done during the Thanksgiving and Christmas/ New Year's holidays because of the heavy traffic, she said. Construction is also being coordinated with the Aloha Tower Marketplace to take its events into consideration.

The old water pipes, installed between 1903 and the 1930s, will be left in place to allow continuous water flow to homes and businesses during construction, she said.

Since 1995 there have been 12 or 13 waterline breaks in the area. "It's significant," Yim said.

Work actually done on Nimitz Highway, the area closest to residential condominiums, will last about two months.

"We need to mitigate the noise as much as possible during the nighttime work," she said.

Tom Smyth, who lives in Harbor Square right next to the highway, said he is willing to put up with the noise if new water pipes are needed.

"You've got to replace water and sewer lines when they need it," Smyth said. "I'd rather have it done in a planned way than in an emergency way where they are going all night digging with backhoes."

Smyth said his building is air-conditioned and residents can shut their windows to cut out much of the noise.