A burst water main on Alder Street on Christmas Eve created a sink hole almost large enough to swallow a Smart Car.
The city’s Wastewater Supervisor Graham Stewart reports that a phone call to the emergency after-hours line the evening of Dec. 24 alerted the city’s water department that a break in a 16-inch transmission line was letting water run beneath the Alder Street buckling the pavement and creating a hole approximately 10 feet by six feet in the northbound curb lane.
“City crews made sure no one was without water and traffic flowed smoothly when they worked to stop a Christmas Eve water main break at the corner of Rockland Road and Alder Street. The leaking water transmission line was closed off, and barricades were set up immediately to prevent vehicles from traveling over the damaged surface,” Stewart says.
The hole was temporarily filled Thursday by Wacor Holdings Ltd.
Stewart says: “The road surface outside the barricade is suitable for vehicle traffic, and the road remains open, but the area near the curb where damage occurred will be barricaded until a more permanent repair can be made. While there was no damage to nearby properties, Alder Street shows signs of water flowing beneath the surface along the edge of the road as far as Candy Lane.”
At press time, the cause of the break was being investigated. Several weeks ago the city installed a pressure reducing valve near the location of the break.
