The sewage pipeline from Mathews to Gloucester is nearing completion and should be ready for use by the end of December, but it will probably be February before all the pump stations are ready to begin pumping.

Turk Greene, job superintendent for contractor T.A. Sheets, said that after December all that should be left to do with the pipeline portion of the job is to fill in some low spots along the roadside and restore the appearance of any land that was disturbed during construction.

Asked why some of the pipeline is being installed down the middle of Route 3 instead of along the side of the road, he said that the Virginia Department of Transportation didn’t want the pipe to be in the wheel path of cars that run off the edge of the road.

Chris DeVore, field superintendent for Southwood Builders of Ashland, the company that’s building the pump stations, said that the four stations—three in Mathews and one in Gloucester—are 80-85 percent complete and are...