Montville — Depot Road in Montville will be closed until mid-January while a local construction firm installs new lining in the pipes that bring water and wastewater into and out of the Rand Whitney Containerboard facility.

The company has hired P&H Construction and Septic Service to install a polyethylene and Kevlar lining inside the two pipelines that move treated water into the cardboard recycling plant and wastewater from the plant to the town's treatment center.

The pipe has shown signs of corrosion and has leaked several times in the last few years, P&H managing partner William Pieniadz said Friday. The town signed a 60-year contract in 1992 to treat Rand Whitney wastewater at its treatment plant and then return clean water to the mill.

That contract was the subject of an extended lawsuit that the town settled in 2008 for more than $11 million.

The road has been closed between Route 32 and Pink Row since Jan. 3 and the project will end on about Jan. 18, depending on the weather, Pieniadz said. It is open only for Depot Road residents, he said.

The westbound lane of Maple Avenue also will be closed during construction, except during evenings and weekends, while the project is ongoing.

P&H is installing the new lining in 900 feet of the decades-old pipeline between Maple Ave. to the Depot Road intersection with Route 32. The project was delayed last spring when a regional drought left water levels in Oxoboxo Brook too low for Rand Whitney to use as a backup water source while the main pipelines were being repaired, Pieniadz said.

m.shanahan@theday.com