Three weeks ago, we gave you the lowdown on a four foot water main break at 21st & Bainbridge that resulted in a river in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood. Impressively, PWD was able to shut off the flow of water down the street and restore water service to almost the entire neighborhood by the next morning. The water department and other utilities have been dealing with the aftermath of the break ever since, as have residents in the homes immediately surrounding the site of the break.

But we have good news- it seems that the long, neighborhood nightmare has nearly come to an end. The hole is shrinking by the day!

From Pemberton

Getting closer

Looking in the hole

According to a missive from the Water Department, released earlier this week, the cause of the break was “mechanical stress… resulting from a combination of traffic loads and soil movement.” This means that the break was an unfortunate incident that probably couldn’t have been expected or prevented.

Also according to this letter, crews have been working twelve hours a day, six days a week to restore the failed infrastructure. Having repaired and replaced the ruined main, workers have been pouring concrete, and backfilling dirt into the pit, bringing it far closer to street level. Peco, PGW, Verizon, and Veolia still have to complete work at this site, at which point the Water Department will be able to backfill the rest of the hole.

As you can imagine, we’ll be really excited once the work is done and the streets filled in.

From the north

It’s kind of cramping our style, ya know?