By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
A ruptured water line exploded like a miniature Old Faithful late Wednesday afternoon, sending water skyward and forcing the closing of a good portion of South Fulton Street.
The break also illustrated Mother Nature’s influence on all things human ó roadways and waterlines, included.
“It’s just cold weather and thermal expansion,” said Larry Lyerly of Salisbury-Rowan Utilities, explaining the reason for the break.
“The ground heats and cools off, and this is what we get,” he continued.
Lyerly said the break on Fulton Street at its intersection with Wiley Avenue was one of the largest that workers with Salisbury-Rowan Utilities have faced recently.
According to reports heard on a police scanner, the water shot skyward about 21/2 feet. Innes and several surrounding streets were flooded with thousands of gallons of water.
Mud covered much of the nearby roadways.
But Lyerly said the break was anything but the first that he and his co-workers have faced in recent weeks.
Lyerly, systems maintenance manager for Salisbury-Rowan Utilities’ water and sewer department, said he was returning from working on a similar break that occurred earlier in the day in Rockwell when he was called to South Fulton.
He said the break was at least the ninth workers with the utility have been called to address since Saturday.
“This just happened to be the biggest,” Lyerly said of the attention the South Fulton break generated.
He said if the break was relatively clean, workers should have the problem rectified by early Wednesday evening. The break was reported shortly before 5 p.m.
Several blocks of South Fulton were blocked by police cruisers until barricades could be erected.
Lyerly and Randy Allman, another worker for Salisbury-Rowan Utilities, were busy cutting gate valves that control pipes that feed the point where the problem occurred.
It was dirty work, with Allman, especially, cold and wet.
Lyerly said he didn’t think the break should affect the water supply to many houses in the neighborhood. He said the primary water supply to the area was carried through pipes on the other side of Fulton Street.
The break occurred on the east side of Fulton Street, adjacent to Chestnut Hills Cemetery.
Workers said one of the primary concerns was that the standing water would freeze as darkness fell, possibly affecting motorists when the road was reopened. They said salt would be spread to help offset the problem.
Lyerly said workers for the utility have been earning a good amount of overtime as a result of the cold snaps of recent weeks. He said several of the utility’s employees worked from about 7 p.m. Tuesday until 4:30 a.m. Wednesday to repair yet another waterline break.