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Work on water mains in the Town of Chevy Chase should be finished within two months, well ahead of schedule, while significant work to improve storm drainage was completed last week.

A Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) project to replace several water mains in the town was set to be finished on Christmas Day this year. But commission spokeswoman Lyn Riggins said construction should be completed sometime this fall.

"Barring any weather issues, we hope to have it completed in October," she said.

The project, which began in August of last year and will cost $1.47 million in construction fees, replaced aging water mains known to cause home evacuations and thousands of dollars in property damage when they burst.

Eleven streets in the town are affected by construction work on the pipes, including 46th and 47th streets, East Avenue, Leland Street, Meadow Lane and Willow Lane.

David Walton, permitting and code enforcement officer for the town, said last week that water main work on Walsh Street should be finished in three to four weeks. Similar work on Oak Lane should be finished in about six to eight weeks.

"Once they finish Oak Lane, they'll be done in the town," Walton said.

He said the town has only received a few complaints about water utilities during the course of the project.

Homeowners with older water pipes in their homes, such as galvanized iron pipes, should have them examined to make sure they integrate well with the new water mains and do not cause problems, Riggins said.

Meanwhile, work to improve storm drainage in four of the town's drainage 14 sectors was completed last week, according to Michael F. Mitchell of the Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation, which is in charge of the project that began just over a year ago.

Work on Chatham Road near Aspen Street was finished last week. The drainage work first focused on the "sump" or lowest point of drainage at Thornapple Street, followed by work at the intersection of East Avenue and Stanford Street.

The newly completed construction work, which cost approximately $1.5 million, should be able to withstand a 10-year storm event, the equivalent of five inches of rain in 24 hours. Such a storm has a 10 percent chance of occurring in any given year.

"This is by far the most challenging (project) I've done," Mitchell said.

The town's ten remaining drainage sectors are currently being analyzed by the county. Designs to improve drainage in those sectors, including areas along Elm Street and Willow Lane, should be completed by the spring, according to Mitchell. Problems in the remaining areas should be solved by relatively minor work, he said.

"We are talking over 250 acres for the whole town," he said. "It is not as urgently needed as the other four (sectors)."

Ketch Ryan, a resident of Oakridge Avenue, said her property has been free of storm water run-off for about a year now.

During a major storm in the summer of 2006, Ryan and her neighbors were reduced to stirring accumulated water at the East Avenue and Stanford Street drain with garden tools to get it to recede. Water would inundate her yard when that drain was not working properly, and other homes on Oakridge Avenue shared the same problem.

"It was just unbelievable. I'll never forget that," she said.