Crews Repair Downtown Water Main Break

Crews Repair Downtown Water Main Break
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OCEAN CITY- Crews were working to repair a sink hole in the area of 16th Street and Philadelphia Avenue caused last Friday afternoon when a contractor for Sandpiper Energy hit a 24-inch water main under the roadway although Monday’s storm curtailed the progress somewhat.

Around 2:30 p.m. on Friday, a contractor working for Sandpiper Energy, the company installing natural gas lines in the resort, struck a 24-inch water main under the roadway in the area of 16th Street and Philadelphia Avenue. The gushing broken water main quickly flooded the area and caused a sink hole to open in the roadway.

Ocean City Public Works crews and resort police personnel responded to the area immediately and quickly rerouted traffic while attempting to isolate the source of the break. Traffic continues to be detoured to St. Louis Avenue until repairs to the road are complete. Some residents in the area lost water service following the break, but water service was restored by Saturday morning.

According to Ocean City Communications Director Jessica Waters, Public Works Director Hal Adkins met with Sandpiper, its contractor Chesapeake Trenching, and State Highway Administration (SHA) officials on Monday for a briefing on the progress of the repairs. It’s important to note the state of Maryland owns and technically maintains Philadelphia Avenue, which is basically Coastal Highway, or Maryland 528, extended.

Crews mobilized on Monday and began the physical repairs on Tuesday, although the winter storm with heavy rain and high winds earlier in the week curtailed those efforts somewhat.

“We are hoping that we get a break in the weather in order to get the work done as quickly as possible,” said Waters. “We are optimistic the road will be back open to normal traffic by the weekend. We also need to restore the sidewalk and don some repair to private property that was damaged.”

Adkins said the meeting was held to gain clarity from SHA on their expectations for restoring their roadway and to gain clarity from the utility companies as to whether or not they had made any repairs or mobilized any equipment over the weekend and apparently they have not.

In addition, a discussion was held over who was at fault, although there was no immediate resolution on that issue, according to Adkins. However, in the interest of quickly repairing the water main break and restoring the damaged roadway and other property, it was decided on Monday to proceed with repairs and sort out who should be billed for what after the area is fully restored.

In July, the Mayor and Council briefly imposed a temporary moratorium on private contractors utilizing directional boring for pipes, cables and other utilities under the town’s roadways after a drilling project ruptured a storm drain in the area of 93rd Street. The ruptured pipe leaked and eroded the earth under the roadway causing a sink hole to form.

The moratorium was lifted just a week later after the Mayor and Council was assured most of the utility companies utilizing directional boring under the resort’s roadways were required to, and had submitted, bonds, often totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, as a contingency fund mechanism for if and when damages are caused to roadways by drilling projects. The utilities involved in last Friday’s water main break in the area of 16th Street did have a bond in place although the exact amount of the bond, or an estimated cost of the repairs, is uncertain at this time.