ATHOL — Public works employees labored much of the day Monday and into the early hours of Tuesday, working to repair a break in a water main that runs through the alley between Athol Credit Union, 513 Main St., and Tintagels Gate/Flowerland, located at 505 Main St.
Athol Public Works Director Dick Kilhart told the Athol Daily News the break in the 8-inch main was reported at around 1:30 p.m. Monday.
“About two feet was blown right off the top of it,” he said. “It was isolated quickly, meaning we got the valves closed to stop the water so we could work on it. Flowerland, the Mexican restaurant, Los Agaves, and the laundromat were without water and electricity for a time.”
Working in the alley way proved problematic, said Kilhart.
“We had to get equipment in there to work, but it’s pretty narrow,” he said. “Normally, we’d use a backhoe to dig on the site but there was no way we were going to get one of those in there. Luckily, a local contractor, Pete Lyman in Phillipston, has a mini-excavator and we were able to use that. If we didn’t have it, we would have had to dig everything by hand. Who knows how long we would’ve been working on it?”
Once the mini-excavator dug down to the main, workers did in fact have to employ shovels and manpower to finish digging out enough room to work on the pipe.
Kilhart said, “The pipe dates back to the original system, back to the late 1800s, early 1900s. This was our third break in the past two weeks or so. First, we had a break on Cottage Street. That was followed by a break under the railroad tracks, in the pedestrian tunnel near the Chinese restaurant, the Tea Garden. They’re all old cast iron pipes and they’re working on borrowed time.”
The DPW chief said workers in the town’s fire and water and sewer departments helped to get the break taken care of as quickly as possible.
“Everybody pitched in,” he said.
The last of the workers left the scene at about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to Kilhart, who added the alley would repaved sometime in the spring. Service Master was called in to remove water from the basements and do cleanup in the neighboring buildings.
Shelly Stone, branch manager for Athol Credit Union, said the business was “minimally disrupted” as a result of the break.
“Main Street was shut down and barriers put up, and people couldn’t walk through the alley,” she said. “People will often park in the lot in back of the building and walk through the alley. Our main concern was with the water in the basement because we didn’t want it to affect the electricity. But we had electricity and water all day.”
The same could not be said for Tintagels Gate/Flowerland or Los Agaves, according to Kilhart.
“National Grid did its best to keep the flowers fresh — important, since Valentine’s Day is coming up,” he said. “And I’m sure the restaurant lost some food. I’m sure there will be some insurance claims.”
Kilhart said he planned to go before the Capital Programs Committee in the near future in hopes of gaining the members’ support for the purchase of a vac truck, which is used to suck up water and other liquids, sludge, and slurry into a holding tank and transported for disposal.
“You can use it for excavations around water, sewer, and utility lines,” he said. “Otherwise, you have shovel around utility lines and that takes quite a bit of time. It can be used for a lot of things. It would have been great to have on hand for the oil truck rollover.”
In December, a truck rolled over, spilling 6,000 gallons of home heating oil into Mill Brook, a tributary of the Millers River.
The cost of a vac truck, according to Kilhart, runs in the vicinity of $400,000.
“The plan is to split the cost of it three ways,” he explained. “The enterprise funds would each pay a third, since both the water and the sewer departments could use it. That would come out their budgets. And a third would come from the Highway Department — from the taxpayers.”
Monday’s water main break, Kilhart concluded, “was one for the record books.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com