CRANBERRY TWP — After more than a year of work, a water meter project in the township is ready to move into the next phase — one that officials are confident could save residents money.

During a meeting of the Cranberry Township Supervisors last week, Jason Dailey, township public works director, gave an update on the water meter replacement program. That project began in March 2017, with Newman Plumbing of Zelienople contracted to perform a majority of the work.

Plans called for Newman to install 7,000 residential water meters, while township officials would install 1,400 commercial water meters. The focus of the $3.5 million project was on meters installed before 2009 to improve service and allow for more accurate billing through the remote transfer of data from the meters to the township office. A worker would no longer have to visit the sites, which in the past took three workers five-to-seven days to do.

Last week, Dailey said the project went, “surprisingly smoothly” with minimal issues. Any issues reported by customers were handled by township staff immediately, he said.

“We had really a good plan for how we proceeded with this,” he said. “If there was one single complaint that we got, we made sure we addressed it then and there.”

In addition to being completed in the set time frame, the project finished $78,000 under budget. Dailey said the township’s IT department found several newer homes that did not need the upgrade, resulting in the savings.

“That $78,000 savings was really a result of the data they were able to extract,” he said.

In total, 6,961 meters were replaced by the contractor, while the township replaced 406. Newman installed 8,441 new meters, while the township installed 37 and reprogrammed 1,392. Newman also replaced 172 pit meters.

Dailey said the project was a team effort for all involved.

“Nearly every department in the township had some role at some point on this project,” he said.

The next new phase of the project will allow customers to log on to a “customer portal” to pay their bills, monitor their water usage, view comparisons to previous periods and set alerts and thresholds for usage.

The portal will allow the township to bill customers by the gallon, and will become active later this year. The move coincides with an increase in the township’s monthly base water rate, which went from $6 to $7. The usage rate increased from $6.48 per 1,000 gallons to $7.47 per 1,000 gallons. The change is the result of an increase in the cost of providing bulk water to the township from supplier West View Water Authority. The increase will be reflected on the Sept. 27 meter reading.

Jerry Andree, township manager, said the portal could help customers save money, as alerts will be sent if usage is higher than normal. He said in the past, an open outdoor faucet or leak could lead to bills in the thousands.

“This potentially can save people a lot of money,” he said.

Andree also pointed to a customer survey that indicates 94 percent of those polled said the service was excellent.