Officials ‘don’t know yet’ when River Road will reopen

(Andrew Harnik/Examiner)

Suburban Maryland water utility officials aren’t sure when traffic will once again roll down Bethesda’s River Road, a week after a massive water main rupture blocked off a mile of the major traffic artery, trapping nine frightened motorists and passengers.

Leaders of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission say they’re working quickly to repair five sections of pipe underneath a busy stretch of River Road between Bradley Boulevard and Seven Locks Road. But after falling short of initial goals of having repairs finished over the weekend, or by the middle of this week, water utility officials are now keeping mum.

“We don’t know yet when the roads will reopen,” water utility spokesman John C. White told The Examiner. “We said last weekend, then we hoped by the middle of this week, and that looks pretty iffy right now so I am scared to do another estimate.”

Water system engineers have already replaced four 16-foot sections of water main, but are waiting for the delivery of a fifth piece of pipe. Then, the resurfacing of River Road itself needs to take place and state highway administration officials need to OK the state road for traffic again.

In the process of replacing the 5-foot-6-inch-tall water main that exploded last Tuesday morning, water utility workers discovered lateral cracks in three other pipes. The fourth pipe had to be removed to access another pipe for repair.

“As a safety precaution, since we had an opportunity to go down into the pipes, we just thought we’d keep on looking,” White said.

Last week, water utility experts thought it would cost about $510,000 to repair the damage, but just days later those costs have more than doubled to $1.3 million. Water utility commissioners from Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, which share the local system infrastructure, had to approve additional funds for repairs over the weekend.

“This is certainly a bigger problem than we thought,” White said. “This is a major job.”

An estimated 55 million gallons, or $118,250 worth of water, were lost during the rupture last week that closed Montgomery County schools early, temporarily shuttered the county’s only trauma center, at Bethesda Suburban Hospital, and required nine motorists to wade through icy water and strong currents to safety.