Sewer line repair closes street

BILL O ’ BOYLE

boboyle@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE – A broken sewer line on one of the city’s busiest roads was worse than originally thought, but temporary repairs were made and River Street reopened late Thursday afternoon.

Workers repair a sewer line break on River Street in Wilkes-Barre Thursday morning near General Hospital. The break caused traffic restrictions.

Jennifer Wychock/for the times leader

“We’ve been on top of the situation from the beginning,” said Mayor Tom Leighton. “The city’s Department of Public Works crew discovered the break and quickly realized that the magnitude of the problem was much larger that what was first thought.”

Leighton said the DPW crew took immediate steps to assure no further damage was done.

According to Drew McLaughlin, spokesman for the city, a break occurred Wednesday morning in the sanitary sewer line that runs down the center of River Street between Elm and Maple streets.

He said River Street had to be shut down at 6 p.m. Wednesday and that continued through most of Thursday. Emergency vehicles were allowed to access the nearby Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.

“All temporary repairs to the ruptured sewer main line on North River Street have been completed,” McLaughlin said. “North River Street opened to traffic as normal at 3 p.m. (Thursday) afternoon.”

Jim Tomaine, deputy executive director at the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority, said Franchelli Enterprises of Wilkes-Barre was contracted to do the repair work. Tomaine said the top of the main line collapsed, and ground materials such as dirt and stone got into the pipe. He said the line had to be cleaned out before it could be placed back in service.

“We haven’t received any calls from customers complaining of any backups in their homes or businesses,” Tomaine said.

Tomaine said the sanitary authority is looking at doing a major repair project along River Street. He said cameras will be used to assess the lines to determine if more sections need to be replaced.

McLaughlin said any evidence of what caused the break would have been washed away. He said the sanitary authority shut off the pumps to the line so that repairs could be made.

The north to southbound lane of River Street remained open while work continued Thursday morning, McLaughlin said.