Officials Say It's Going To Take Longer To Repair Center City Water Main Break
Follow CBSPHILLY Facebook | Twitter
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- More than three weeks after a 48-inch water main burst in Center City, spilling the equivalent of nearly two dozen Olympic sized pools of water from underground, officials still don't know what caused the rupture.
On Wednesday, some businesses are still impacted by the break, including Luminous Chiropractic.
"It's impacting my x-ray machine, my thermography machine. I've had to have patients mid-exam leave the office it's kind of a nightmare," said Dr. Casey D'Arcy.
City officials said at a meeting to update residents on the situation Wednesday night that crews still do not know what caused the water main break. But some businesses noticed a utility company digging in the area in the weeks leading up to it.
"There's was digging in that intersection for several months around 6 every night. They would come in and would dig up and fill it back in," said Kurt Darhower, owner of Salon Ricochet. "It definitely compromised the piping."
Debra McCarty, the Philadelphia Water Commissioner confirmed, "there was a contractor there the night before as a matter of fact."
We asked if the digging had any cause to the water main break.
"I have no idea," she said. "That's one of the things we'll take into consideration in the evaluation."
Officials hope to have the intersection open sometime in the fall but it could be closed until the start of the new year.
