T. Bailey Inc., of Anacortes, Wash., has begun work under a $1.2 million contract with the city of Spokane to construct a 1.1 million-gallon, 134-foot-high water reservoir on Five Mile Prairie.

The city expects that the reservoir will boost water pressure to customers on the north end of the prairie. The contract was awarded in April, and the work is to be completed by June 2010, says city spokeswoman Marlene Feist.

The 38-foot-diameter reservoir will serve water customers in the northwest section of the Five Mile Prairie.

The reservoir will be built on 2.5 acres of city-owned land about a quarter-mile northwest of the intersection of Vel View Drive and Dorset Road.

Currently, water customers on the north end of the prairie get their water from a reservoir along Strong Road, on the south side of the prairie. The Strong Road reservoir will continue to serve customers on the south side of the prairie.

Separately, Eller Corp., of Newman Lake, has been awarded a contract for $441,000 to construct a 24-inch diameter water main that will stretch 3,600 feet from the new water tank to a water line, connecting up with that line near the intersection of Hawthorne Road and Dorset Road, west of Five Mile Road, says Karin Rinaldi, project manager for Eller.

The water main is expected to be constructed this fall, she says. Eller also will be constructing a gravel access road along the water main, Rinaldi says.