Repairs are still on-going on a water main that broke on Jan. 13 and caused flooding across from Lake Isle club.
One lane remains closed to traffic while workers from Westchester Joint Waterworks finish digging up the broken main to repair it.
Here are some pictures of the site taken about 2:30 p.m. today.
Long view:
Closer view:
Inside the cones:
A look in the hole:
I had a chance to talk with Tony Conetta, manager of the Westchester Joint Waterworks, about the timeline to fix the break.
Best guess is four to five weeks from when the break was first reported.
Part of the problem was that the pipe initially was thought to belong to United Water, but their investigation showed it was not theirs. Instead, it was a 30-inch pipe, laid down in the late 1950s, between 2 1/2 and 3 miles long, that delivers water from Yonkers to Larchmont for Westchester Joint Waterworks.
Once Westchester Joint Waterworks got a chance to check the pipe, they had to stop work so that Con Ed could check their high-pressure gas line and make sure it hadn’t been affected. Con Ed eventually put a collar on their pipe, and work was able to go forward.
Most recently, WJW did a video survey of the pipe to make sure the hole responsible for the leak was the only problem in the pipe. Conetta said that video is being studied right now, and if no further breaks are found, the company will dig out the cement pipe that is damaged, order a replacement, put it in and then, once it is tested again, fill the hole and repave the street.
Because WJW has two water sources, customers were only temporarily inconvenienced from the break, Conetta said. No one lost water entirely, although the pressure dropped significantly at one point and some of the water was discolored. Pressure and purity of the water was restored in the middle of last week or so.
Conetta said he did not know what caused the break. It could have been almost anything, from the weight of traffic on the road to shifts in the ground to age. Figuring out why the break happened will be part of the analysis of the damaged pipe once it’s removed.
Until then, expect to see orange traffic cones and a constricted road in the area for a few more weeks.
