Syracuse, N.Y. — Up to two feet of snow and howling winds forecast in the next 24 hours could slow repairs to a burst pipe that is causing water shortages in six towns east of Syracuse, county officials said Monday.
Repairs were already expected to last well into January. Now there won’t even be an estimate of completed repairs until the end of this week, officials said at a news conference Monday afternoon.
“The next day or two we may lose some ground,” said County Executive Ryan McMahon. “The weather is not cooperating.
An early and critical repair step involves draining the area around the burst pipe.
But that will take longer if the construction site — at Northern Boulevard and East Taft Road — fills up again with snow, said Jeff Brown, executive director of the Onondaga County Water Authority.
“The water table has risen,” he said. “More water needs to be pumped out.”
In addition, the pole ram, which was installed on Monday, would need to be lowered in high winds. A jackhammer is drilling 24-foot piles into the ground so workers can build an underground tub, of sorts, to create a space to access the broken pipe.
Workers will be on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week until repairs are complete, Brown said. Any delay would be due to excess water in the country, not a shortage of manpower.
Two drillers are scheduled to begin digging wells on Monday night that will be used to divert water from the construction site. That water will be diverted to a local stream.
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OCWA Cracked Water Pipe Repair
The site needs to be drained and given time to dry before engraving can begin. Crews will then install underground walls to protect workers while replacing 134 feet of pipe.
“We’ll know better by the end of the week what the timeline will be,” Brown said.
Until the pipeline is replaced, OCWA is relying on a combination of temporary water supplements and conservation efforts in the six affected towns: DeWitt, Manlius, Pompey, Lenox, Lincoln and Onondaga.
The cities of Syracuse and Oneida each provide 800,000 gallons, and OCWA installed temporary pumps in Otisco Lake. Brown said the agency also plans to install about 900 feet of pipe along Fly Road and a shorter section along Molloy Road to bring water from Lake Ontario OCWA to DeWitt.
OCWA has been dealing with water leaks in the same area since at least the summer when a main transmission line valve leaked. This was fixed in August; in November, the first leak in the main line was found 30 feet from the valve repair. Brown said the two are not related.
The agency fixed that November leak, but a nearby main pipe sprung two more leaks in December. Temporary fixes failed, and on December 20, OCWA shut off the pipeline, cutting off water to 27,000 users.
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