A major water main break at the corner of Case Avenue and Front Street on Tuesday, Aug. 14 left a majority of downtown without water for nearly an hour. The main was fixed quickly after a number of personnel were pulled from different sections of the project.
The Wrangell Road and Utility Improvement team met on Aug. 16 for what will be one of their final roundtable discussions of the project before it wraps in late September.
Addressing the group, which included acting Borough Manager Carol Rushmore, project engineer Eric Voorhees stated that during the past two weeks vehicle access to City Market and Sentry Hardware has opened up to a greater degree, with parking and access to Zak’s Café being finalized as well.
According to Voorhees, all the underground utility installations for the project are nearly complete, and concrete work is continuing to progress toward St. Michael’s and Episcopal streets.
According to project superintendent Mike Ashton, a serious break in a large water main at the corner of Front Street and Case Avenue on Aug. 14 resulted in a loss of water to the entire downtown area – as well as Trident Seafoods and the cement mixing operation at The Marine Service Center renovation project.
“A rock got caught between the excavator and a 12-inch water main,” Ashton said. “It put a hole in the main. It took about an hour-and-a-half from start to finish to fix it. It was impressive. We had a lake. The city did a great job helping us because, when this happened, it was a major water main that took out the entire town.”
According to Ashton, Jeff Rooney of the city’s public works department was on-scene quickly to help alleviate the problems associated with the break.
“As soon as it happened, the first thing Jeff did was contact Trident Seafoods to give them a heads-up because they were working with fish eggs,” Ashton added. “They were able to make sure there were no problems and they got things buttoned up. We did slow the production of one truck of concrete into the boat haul-out area for about an hour, but I didn’t hear anything about them losing the load.”
In the two-week look-ahead schedule, the project team is finishing up streets, sidewalks, and curb and gutter up to St. Michael’s Street. A two-block portion remains to be finished toward Episcopal Street due to keeping access available to the area.
“Because of the sequencing that has to take place, we’re kind of short by two blocks right now,” Ashton said. “As soon as we get Episcopal open and operational, we can get public traffic on this end of town going through there. We’ll spend about five days doing that last stretch of road that ties in with St. Michael’s.”
The team is also continuing installation of storm drains, water and utilities between Curley Ville and Case Avenue, with just a slight delay due to a change order and need for parts, which arrived last week.
Installation of 10-inch and 2-inch material between Episcopal Street and Case Avenue is ongoing as well, with the grading and pouring of concrete between St. Michael’s and Case Avenue nearly complete.
The entire project is still slated to wrap up on Sept. 21.
The next meeting of the project team is set for Aug. 30 at 10 a.m. at City Hall.
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