Traffic along Indiana Avenue between Blossom Lane and Lee Road is being forced to slow down and sometimes stop as crews work to install new water lines for customers of Hilldale Water District.

New lines in the ground along Indiana, which is Oak Park’s main thoroughfare, will precede similar work on Redbud Drive, wrapping up that portion of work in the subdivision where a large chunk of the district’s 1,800 customers live, Hilldale general manager Bradley Barnes said.

Eventually, some of the new lines will feed a new well and treatment plant to be financed by a $3.5 million loan secured in 2008 by the district from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development office. Payments on the loan are stretched over 40 years.

The well will provide 700 gallons of water per minute from the underground Sparta Aquifer in Hilldale’s service area, mainly east of Halls Ferry Road and south of Interstate 20.

An additional $4 million in water infrastructure improvements from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will pay for linking new lines with those of the neighboring Fisher Ferry Water District for backup. The Corps will match 75 percent of money spent on improvements.