ASHEBORO N.C. (ACME NEWS)- A pipe break early Monday morning caused the water tower on S Church St to drain its around half a million gallons of water in less than half an hour.
City officials say they were made aware of the issue around 5:30 a.m. The water main break caused a 5-foot sinkhole to form at the base of the water tower. That sinkhole formed directly under a cell tower utility building, causing it to fall into the hole.
Crews were still pumping water out this afternoon and were waiting for a crane to come to remove the building.
The flowing water carried mud down the parking lot and onto S Church Street and Academy Streets. South Church St is currently closed between Sunset Ave and Wainman Ave and several homes are without water.
City officials do not yet have a timeline for repairs but say they will keep working until repairs are completed.
UPDATE (Sept 20, 2021 – 7 P.M.) – A crane has arrived, and crews have started setting up to move the utility building which fell into the sinkhole earlier this morning. The solid concrete building which belongs to Verizon houses equipment for the cell site on the top of the water tower. “We’ve got lights on the way and we’re not stopping” said Michael Rhoney, the Water Resources Director for the City of Asheboro. “Once that building is out of the way we can get to work.”
According to Asheboro Mayor David Smith, the water main break occurred at a cross type of interaction of a 16-inch line and a 12-inch line. “One of the sides was plugged because there wasn’t a line on that side, that plug is what gave out, they found it this morning in the parking lot.,” said Mayor Smith.
According to Rhoney the failure was likely due to aging equipment. “It’s an older water system, these things happen,” said Rhoney, who pointed out the tank was put in around 1939, and with good maintenance will last another 100 years. “We’ve got a company that comes in and inspects the tower every so often, and every couple years or so they even repaint the inside, It’s the stuff that’s buried that is the hardest to maintain”said Mayor Smith.
One or two businesses on North Church St and Sunset as well as most of the residences around the tank are still without water, but Rhoney says he’s hoping to have water services fully restored by tomorrow morning or lunch time at the latest, “We got materials here to fix almost everything but we don’t know what we’ve got exactly until we get that building out of the way,”
UPDATE (Sept 21, 2021 – 9:30 A.M.) – South Church St is back open this morning after crews worked overnight to remove the concrete building from the sinkhole. The crane brought in late yesterday was able to lift the building and place it in the parking lot. With that done work crews were disassembling the crane to move it out of the way so Asheboro city employees could begin work.
Work will continue today, however there is no timeline for when repairs will be complete.
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