Crews work to repair collapsed Lancaster Street sewer
Trending
MARIETTA -- A collapsed sanitary sewer pipe closed Lancaster Street as crews worked to determine whether a water leak contributed to the failure, according to Marietta Safety Service Director Steve Wetz.
Wetz said about 10 feet of sanitary sewer pipe collapsed. Crews worked until about 3 a.m. on the repair before returning to the site later in the morning.
When workers excavated the area, they encountered a large amount of water from an unknown source, Wetz said.
"It seems like there might also be a water leak contributing to the sewer pipe collapse," he said.
Wetz said the city did not initially believe heavy rainfall caused the collapse because water continued entering the area after the rain had passed. Crews were still investigating the source of the water and working on repairs as of Thursday morning.
Lancaster Street is one of the routes providing access to and from Harmar Hill. Wetz said officials hoped to reopen the street by the end of Thursday or Friday morning, depending on the progress of the repairs.
The closure comes as work continues on a separate hillside stabilization project along Maple Street, another route serving Harmar Hill.
Wetz said rocks broke loose from the hillside and struck a nearby house about two weeks ago on Maple. City employees subsequently cleared an area in the woods and installed a guardrail behind the houses to prevent additional falling rocks from reaching a home.
"They put the guardrail up in the woods there behind the houses," Wetz said.
Geostabilization International, or GSI, is performing the contracted hillside stabilization work. Wetz said workers encountered voids or air pockets while boring horizontally into the hillside.
To address the problem, the contractor planned to drill holes from the street above the work area and fill the voids with a mortar-like mixture. Once the material is in place, workers will continue installing soil nails to stabilize the hillside.
Wetz said city employees removed the rocks that fell from the work area and installed the guardrail, while GSI is completing the stabilization project.