Friday, May 10, 2013
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission engineers recently completed the tunnel-boring process to build the Bi-County Water Tunnel Project.
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission engineers recently completed the last leg of the 5.3-mile tunnel-boring process necessary to build the Bi-County Water Tunnel Project, according to a WSSC news statement. "Hitting a target 4.5 miles away when boring a tunnel 200 feet underground is quite a feat. On Friday, April 26, the tunnel-boring machine "hit the target just a few feet off dead center, breaking through the wall of a shaft near Tuckerman Lane and I-270," the statement reported. Miners call that target-hitting moment "holing through," WSSC said. As soon as the tunnel-boring machine is removed from the tunnel shaft, pipe installation will begin. The tunnel runs about 200 feet underground along Interstate 270 and Interstate 495, and …
Monday, April 15, 2013
Montgomery County Council's Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee reviews the request on Monday morning.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission is proposing a 7.25 percent rate increase for water and sewer use in Montgomery County, according to a news release from the county council's office. On Monday, April 15, at 9:30 a.m., the Montgomery County Council's Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee, chaired by Council Member Roger Berliner, will review WSSC's operating budget request. Council Members Nancy Floreen and Hans Riemer are also on the committee. The budget request comes as an investigation examines the cause of a massive water main break on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase on March 18. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission engineers still do not know what caused the break, but they say that the fiber…
Monday, April 8, 2013
The fiber optic monitoring system meant to warn WSSC of impending breaks in the water main did not fail, WSSC engineers said, Bethesda Now reported.
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission engineers still do not know what caused the massive water main break on March 18 at the intersection of Connecticut Avenue and Chevy Chase Lake Drive, but they say that the fiber optic monitoring system installed in the pipes in 2010 did not fail, Bethesda Now reported. The monitoring system detects only the sounds of snapping steel wires in the concrete pipes, but as the steel wires did not snap before the break, the monitoring system could not detect the impending break, WSSC chief engineer Gary Gumm told the Montgomery County Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee on Monday morning, Bethesda Now added. But, "[that] is a distinction however that has very little comfort to our community …
Friday, April 5, 2013
On Monday, at 9:30 a.m., the Montgomery County Council's Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee will be briefed on what has been learned so far about the water main break at Chevy Chase Lake Drive and Connecticut Avenue.
As cleanup continues around the crater formed by March 18's massive water main break at Connecticut Avenue and Chevy Chase Lake Drive, many questions have arisen about how the water main break—from which 60 million gallons of water were lost, necessitating mandatory water restrictions in two counties—could have happened. This Monday, at 9:30 a.m., the Montgomery County Council's Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee will be briefed on what has been learned so far about the break, according to an email statement from Neil Greenberger, spokesperson for the Montgomery County Council. The Washington Post reported that a Chevy Chase resident noticed "water squirting up from an opening in a circular metal plate …
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Water restrictions necessitated by a massive water main break in Chevy Chase on Monday, March 18, were lifted at about 6 p.m. Saturday.
Mandatory water restrictions necessitated by a massive water main break in Chevy Chase Monday were lifted at around 6 p.m. on Saturday, according to a Montgomery County email alert. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission lifted the water restrictions—which asked residents of Montgomery and Prince George's counties to reduce water consumption by 10 percent—following the completion of repair work to the broken 60-inch-in-diameter main. The restrictions were in place for four and a half days. The ruptured main is back in service, "but restoration of the area, including roadway, sidewalk, removal of damaged trees and work on the stream bed near the break, will take weeks," the alert reported. The additional work will require the right-…
Friday, March 22, 2013
WSSC hopes to have the repaired line back in service by the end of the weekend.
Repairs to the 60-inch-in-diameter water main that burst Monday night on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase are nearly complete. A new pipe section was put in place Thursday, and the grout in the pipe joints cured overnight. Early Friday morning, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission crews "slowly opened a valve to begin filling the isolated stretch of pipe," according to a statement on the WSSC website. On Friday, WSSC crews were slated to "[flush] the repaired line during the day, which is part of the standard decontamination process to ensure water quality, before putting the transmission main back into service," the statement said. The Acoustic Fiber Optic monitoring system was re-installed yesterday, The Washington Post reported. …
Two northbound lanes on Connecticut Avenue are open after a ruptured 60-inch main sent water gushing three stories high Monday.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Water restrictions are in place in Montgomery and Prince George's counties until repairs to the Chevy Chase Lake water main are complete, which could take several days.
Update, 1 p.m., Thursday, March 21: Repairs to the 60-inch water main that burst Monday night in Chevy Chase continued on Thursday. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission crews removed the damaged 20-foot section of the pipe and are working to weld a new section in place, according to a WSSC statement issued at noon Thursday. "Once repairs to the pipe are complete later this afternoon it will take several more days for the work to conclude," the statement read. Only the right-hand northbound lane of Connecticut Avenue between Dunlop Street and Manor Road in Chevy Chase Lake remained closed Thursday. Mandatory water restrictions continued Thursday for Montgomery and Prince George's counties. "There is evidence that [water] consumption is …
Check out these shots of the 30-foot geyser that erupted from a ruptured water main captured by a Patch blogger.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
WSSC crews determined that the pipe that broke was a 60-inch water transmission pipe connected to a 54-inch line—not a 54-inch pipe, as originally reported.
Update, 1 p.m., Thursday, March 21: Repairs to the 60-inch water main that burst Monday night in Chevy Chase continued on Thursday. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission crews removed the damaged 20-foot section of the pipe and are working to weld a new section in place, according to a WSSC statement issued at noon Thursday. "Once repairs to the pipe are complete later this afternoon it will take several more days for the work to conclude," the statement read. Only the right-hand northbound lane of Connecticut Avenue between Dunlop Street and Manor Road in Chevy Chase Lake remained closed Thursday. Mandatory water restrictions continued Thursday for Montgomery and Prince George's counties. "There is evidence that [water] consumption is …
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10:18 am on Saturday, May 11, 2013
Thanks for reporting this! I had wondered what was going on at that site, and now I know! Potomac Patch is an invaluable source of quality local reporting. more ›