Syracuse, N.Y. — Repairs to a ruptured water transmission line are likely to take the first full week of January, an official said Thursday.
That would extend the time it takes residents and businesses in six central New York cities to conserve water.
Jeff Brown, executive director of the Onondaga County Water Authority, said the timeline for the massive repair at Cicero has not been “firmed up.”
“There’s a good chance it will go within the week of Jan. 5,” he told syracuse.com | Post-Standard on Christmas Day. “But we have no idea when exactly it will be completed at this point.
Construction work is expected to begin “in earnest” next week, Brown said.
A large ram is delivered Friday to a job site near Northern Boulevard and East Taft Road. A huge amount of steel sheets will arrive during the weekend.
A multi-man crew will begin using a jackhammer on Monday to push steel sheets 40 feet into the ground to block off the area around the burst pipe.
Once the 150-foot ditch is walled in, a series of pumps removes the excess water. A new pipe can then be laid. Water may start flowing after flushing and checking.
Brown said he wasn’t sure how many hours crews would be at the scene.
OCWA is trying to do construction work faster than usual. Brown said he is trying to scale back the work, which could normally take a month to two weeks.
The concrete pipe typically delivers millions of gallons of water each day to 27,000 customer accounts in the cities of DeWitt, Manlius, Pompey, Sullivan, Lenox and Lincoln. This is the first major problem for the pipe since it was built in the 1960s.
County officials issued a mandatory conservation order ordering residents and businesses to reduce non-essential water use.
Brown said those conservation efforts, plus water flowing from Lake Otisco and the cities of Syracuse and Oneida, are working. Water consumption by customers is now equal to the amount of water pumped into the large reservoirs in Manlius.
Those reservoirs, which are typically filled with 50 million gallons of water, have remained at about 18% capacity for the past three days.
“We’ve definitely seen a reduction in demand,” he said. “At this stage, it is important to continue efforts to stabilize the system.”
Brown said crews also recently adjusted the emergency pump to provide better water pressure in parts of DeWitt.
The areas most at risk of water loss are the southern part of the village of Manlius, the northern part of the city of Pompey and parts of the village of Fayetteville.
Repairs not completed by the first full week of January could affect local schools.
Thousands of students are set to return to water conservation schools on January 5.
Brown said the county’s emergency management has been in contact with school officials. OCWA will also reach out soon, he said.
Brown also provided additional information on earlier efforts to restore water services.
He said crews first noticed a leak sometime last week in the massive pipeline, known as the Eastern Branch Pipeline. Crews dug in and were able to repair the leak.
It turned out that there was a second spill in the area. It’s not unusual for two leaks to initially look like one and the same, he said.
This leak would prove much more difficult to fix.
Brown said crews first tried to place sheet metal around the pipe. Then they tried to concrete the pipe.
It was determined Saturday that the temporary fixes had failed and the pipe needed to be replaced, Brown said.
The agency announced the problem that day and asked customers to use less water.
How does this lack of water affect you? Have you received notice to close your business or send workers home? What is your water pressure? Share your experience with us at citynews@syracuse.com.
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