A century-old water main under Chestnut Street failed just after midnight Tuesday, sending water through the roadway and into the basements of three businesses before crews could shut off the flow. Public works director Alan Petrosky said the break was in a cast-iron pipe installed in 1919 and that a full repair could take two to three weeks.
Residents on the 200 block of Chestnut Street reported hearing what sounded like rushing water around 12:20 a.m. By the time crews arrived, water had pooled to a depth of nearly a foot at the low point of the street and was draining into the basements of Chestnut Hardware, the Blue Kettle cafe, and a dental office next door.
"I got the call at one in the morning and by the time I got down here my whole storage room was underwater," said Marcy DiSalvo, who owns Chestnut Hardware with her husband. "We lost most of what was on the bottom shelves. Paint, fasteners, a couple hundred dollars of stock, easy."
Why the repair will take weeks
Petrosky said the section of pipe that failed is part of a stretch the city has flagged for replacement since 2019 but had not yet funded. Rather than patch the break and leave the surrounding pipe in place, public works plans to replace roughly 300 feet of main, which requires ordering pipe that is not kept in stock locally.
Chestnut Street will remain closed to through traffic between Pine and Willow streets while the work is underway, and water pressure in the surrounding blocks may drop or discolor intermittently, according to a notice the city sent to affected addresses Tuesday morning.
All three flooded businesses reopened Tuesday afternoon after several hours of pumping, though DiSalvo said she expects to be doing inventory and drying out stock for days. The city has told property owners to file claims through its risk management office if they believe the aging main is at fault for their losses.
